Srinagar, August 24 
Chief of Army Staff Gen Bipin Rawat visited the Chinar Corps on Friday to review the prevailing overall security situation in the Valley, an Army spokesman said.
On his sthe Army chief interacted with former Governor NN Vohra at Raj Bhawan in Srinagar.

“Later in the day, the Army chief was given an update by the Chinar Corps commander in the Badami Bagh cantonment on the latest security scenario in the Kashmir valley, including the details of counter-infiltration and counter-terrorist operations undertaken in the recent past and the Amarnath yatra,” the spokesman added.
General Rawat was appreciative of the measures initiated, which have significantly contributed towards improving the security situation.
The Army chief also interacted with other senior functionaries of the security forces, the spokesman said.

Soldier killed in mine blast in Kupwara

Tribune News Service
Srinagar, August 25
A soldier was killed in a mine blast in north Kashmir’s frontier Kupwara district on late Friday, officials said.
The mine blast took place at around 10 pm on Friday when army was patrolling an area close to the Line of Control.
“A soldier of 3 JAK RIF got injured due to mine blast and succumbed to his injuries,” a security official said.
The identity of the soldier could not be established immediately.

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 21
The Army has extended a helping hand to the ailing parents of a Lashkar-e-Toiba militant commander in Pulwama district.
Ahead of Eid, the Army went to the house of Riyaz Ahmed Dar alias Khalid and interacted with his ailing parents, who are in their sixties. Dar, who had taken up arms in 2015, is the only son of his elderly parents.
“With Eid-ul-Zuha around the corner, soldiers from the Kakapore-based Army camp interacted with the couple and brought some shine on their faces. During the interaction, their problems were discussed and medical aids were ensured to Dar’s father,” an Army spokesman said.

He said Dar’s father was partially paralysed and under medication for one year.
“Facing constant hardships, the couple even had to shift to their relatives’ house. They have been taking shelter there for four months. The family was assured that the Army will continue to stand with them in all circumstances,” the spokesman said.
“The Army also said it would provide full assistance and cooperation to the family in case he wishes to return and wants to join the mainstream,” he added.

India is participating in the drill for the first time since becoming a full member of the SCO in June 2017. PTI file

Beijing/Moscow, August 23 

For the first time, the militaries of India and Pakistan are taking part in a mega anti-terror drill of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Russia aimed at expanding cooperation among the member countries to deal with the growing menace of terrorism and extremism.

India is participating in the drill for the first time since becoming a full member of the SCO in June 2017. As part of the SCO initiatives, the SCO Peace Mission Exercise is conducted biennially for the SCO member states.

The joint exercise is being conducted by the Central Military Commission of Russia from August 22 to August 29 at Chebarkul, Russia.

The exercise will involve tactical level operations in an international counter insurgency or counter terrorism environment under the SCO Charter.

At least 3,000 soldiers from China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, India and Pakistan are participating in the drill, according to the Chinese media reports.

Ten representatives from Uzbekistan will serve as observers, state-run Global Times reported.

The Indian contingent of 200 personnel is primarily composed of troops from infantry and affiliated arms and services along with the Indian Air Force. The Indian contingent has been put through a strenuous training schedule which includes firing, heliborne operations, combat conditioning, tactical operations and house intervention drills, according to curtain raiser of the exercise released by the Ministry of Defence in New Delhi.

The joint exercise will strengthen mutual confidence, interoperability and enable sharing of best practices among armed forces of the SCO nations.

The previous SCO counter-terrorism drills were mainly limited to the Central Asian nations, the Chinese media said.

But due to the entry of India and Pakistan, the SCO’s counter-terrorism mission has expanded to South Asia, Li Wei, a counter-terrorism expert at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations in Beijing, told the Global Times.

The SCO was established in Shanghai in 2001, with China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as founding members.

It expanded to include India and Pakistan in 2017.

“The effective counter-terrorism cooperation among SCO countries has greatly undermined terrorist groups in Central Asia in recent years, and it’s expected that this effective cooperation will also boost stability in South Asia, a region facing a more complicated counter-terrorism situation with a variety of active terrorist groups,” Li said.

Sun Zhuangzhi, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said Peace Mission 2018 will also greatly improve military and political mutual trust among SCO countries, especially between India and Pakistan.

“It’s a rare opportunity for Pakistan and India, which have long been involved in military conflict, to enhance military exchanges and trust. This could improve regional stability,” Sun said.

Li said future counter-terrorism drills among SCO countries have to come up with new drills on targeting terrorist groups in South Asia. He suggested that the SCO further expand to include Afghanistan, which is currently an observer country, to strengthen counter-terrorism efforts in South Asia.

The Peace Mission 2018 also created a historic chance for four major military powers in Eurasia – China, Russia, Pakistan and India – to participate in the same military drill, Sun said. PTI

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 20

In a major change of weaponry for the Army, a tender was issued today seeking supply of some 41,000 new light machine guns (LMGs) to equip its infantry battalions.This is the first change of an LMG—basic weapon of infantry units— in the Army’s armoury in two decades. A request for information (RFI), the first step of a tender, looking for additional vendors was issued today, complete with details of requirements.The RFI was first issued in October last, but the parameters on its numbers, method of sourcing, firing capabilities, etc, were issued today after the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) okayed the need for 40,949 LMGs. Of these, 30,712 will sourced from private Indian industry and another 10,237 from the Ordnance Factory Board. The indent to OFB will be placed after successful completion of trials.The 7.62×51 mm LMGs are to be procured under the ‘Buy and Make Indian’ category.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. File photo

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 18Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Saturday visited the residence of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to pay his respects.The chief minister spent about 30 minutes and wrote in the condolence book some of his feelings for Vajpayee, whom he remembered meeting for the first time back in 1970.The chief minister met Vajpayee’s foster daughter Namita and son-in-law Ranjan Bhattacharyya along with other family members, to pay his personal condolences, according to an official spokesperson.Recalling Vajpayee’s 1970 Punjab visit, the CM said Atal ji had come there to campaign for him and spent three days in Patiala.The chief minister reminisced that he had come out of the Army in 1968 and was contesting his first election — a bypoll from Dakala in 1970 after the sitting MLA, Basant Singh, was killed by Naxalites.The chief minister remembered the former prime minister as a great leader, an excellent statesman, a dignified politician and a fine human being. His death had left a vacuum that would be hard to fill, he said. 

In a post-war India struggling with disenchantment and rising prices, Gandhi used the incident to unite the people

Sardari Lal was injured in the airplane bombing at Gujranwala on April 15

Hall Gate, Amritsar

Prof JS Grewal & Prof Indu Banga The First World War had just ended. There was a lot of disillusionment, a lot of disenchantment. The prices were rising. Disbanded soldiers were acutely unhappy and felt cheated. People were protesting all over. They had wanted concessions, but what the British gave them was the Rowlatt Act. Mahatma Gandhi had already started acting against it and was mobilising people. Massive protests were being organised across Punjab too. Amid all this happened the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.It was Baisakhi day and Sikhs from nearby villages were visiting the Golden Temple. Some of them with families were resting in the Bagh. Col Reginald Dyer, a British officer, arrived with the troops and ordered them to open fire at the people in Jallianwala Bagh. Hundreds died on the spot, several hundreds were injured, making it a watershed moment in the history of the national movement. However, what make the incident important were the events that led to it.The early 20th century saw the mobilisation of masses through various causes. The Swadeshi movement and Ghadar movement had taken place, along with the revolutionary activity in Bengal and Maharashtra. There was a lot of discontent among Michael O’Dwyer’s forced recruitment for the war. He was actually an arch imperialist, who played an active role in various imperialist organisations in the UK after his retirement. All this had already angered people. The Indians who had fought in the war had returned with the idea of political concessions. They had thought there would be equality. There was considerable discontent in Punjab. Prof Ravinder Kumar, a historian of modern India, has written on this in detail in Urban Society and Urban Politics: Lahore in 1919.The people’s restlessness made the British worried and they were afraid of a repeat of 1857. The Ghadar leaders had openly talked about 1857 as the First War of Independence and they tried to bring about an uprising of the British Indian army. There was an exaggerated fear among the British that there could be a possibility of this kind of situation. They were paranoid and had been actually expecting something in 1907, the 50th anniversary year of 1857, when Ajit Singh and Lala Lajpat Rai were deported to Burma. This is what Dyer had also claimed and O’Dwyer was his biggest defender.In the aftermath of the tragedy, Rabindranath Tagore relinquished his knighthood in May 1919 and Gandhi gave up his medal of Kaiser-e-Hind in August 1920. The SGPC had resolved to support non-cooperation in 1921.That was the least they could have done to protest. What made the Jallianwala Bagh massacre more important was the context in which it happened, the times that were. It fitted into the scenario. In 1919, people were protesting against the Rowlatt Act; in 1920, the Khilafat Movement and the Non-Cooperation Movement had started and continued for another year until it was dropped in 1922. These three years are very important in the history of modern India. The Jallianwala Bagh incident is important in the sense that it created a possibility for Gandhi and some other leaders to come together and use this and the other movements against the British. This, like the return of titles and awards, became a feature of the non-cooperation movement. The effort was to bring together all anti-British forces together. And he succeeded in it to a large extent and emerged as the most important Indian leader after these three years.To say that the Jallianwala Bagh tragedy made him big would be too simplistic a statement. He made his own inquiry into the incident. He seized upon the opportunity, which was in continuation of the agitation against the Rowlatt Act and used it for unprecedented political mobilisation under non-cooperation.It may be added that Udham Singh avenged the incident by murdering O’Dwyer in March 1940. The event is said to have left a deep mark on Bhagat Singh, who is believed to have carried home soil from the Bagh. It turned Akali leader Kartar Singh Jhabbar, a pacifist interested in social and educational reforms, into an extremist political activist.This period remains a watershed in the Indian freedom movement, and the Jallianwala Bagh tragedy was an important one in a chain of events.— As told to Sarika Sharma

Struggles to give away 22,000 cattle after closure of military farms; Rs 300-crore annual burden

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 5

The Indian Army is faced with ‘bovine battle’ as it struggles to hand over some 22,000 cows it owns. The Army is spending Rs 300 crore a year on their upkeep — feed, manpower, salaries and day-to-day expenses.In July last year, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) ordered the closure of 39 military farms across the country. Started in 1889 by the British, such farms are redundant as the milk supply is no more dependent on them.The farms sit on 20,000 acres of prime defence land that is now needed for new projects like upcoming ground-based missile storage, aviation, new raisings and even housing for jawans.The cows should have been handed over a year ago, but there was no interest at auctions. The MoD, in last week of June, issued instructions to give away the cows at a nominal rate of Rs 1,000 each to central and government units besides cooperatives.The Army originally had 25,000 cows, of which 2,700 were given away. Some 22,000 cattle head still remain and are being looked after by the Army. After the fixation of a nominal cost, the Army has received applications to take away 11,000 more cattle head, sources have confirmed. The cost of transportation is to be borne by the purchaser.A large number of these cows are of high-yield variety ‘Frieswal’ developed by cross-breeding the Holstein Friesian cow of the Netherlands with the Sahiwal of India.As per the MoD plan, 12 of the 39 British-era military farms were to close by August 15, 2017, and the remaining by the end of October 2017.These farms, when running full steam, met 14 per cent of about 210 million litres of annual milk supply needed by 1.3 million-strong Army. The rest is now procured through various cooperative milk supply schemes run across the country.The ‘white revolution’ of the 1970s changed the dynamics of milk availability. On December 28, 2017, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh told a parliamentary consultative committee that “India continues to be the largest producer of milk in the world since last 15 years”. Milk production, which was around 17-22 million tonnes in the 1960s, has increased to 163.7 million tonnes in 2016-17.The original decision to close down the military farms was taken in 2013 after a meeting of the Army Commanders. While 29 farms were to shut shop between 2013 and 2015, the remaining 10 had to follow suit by 2017.The farms are spread in places like Ambala, Jalandhar, Pathankot, Jammu, Srinagar, Kargil, Udhampur, Meerut, Ranikhet, Ahmednagar, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Secunderabad, Mhow, Jhansi, Dimapur, Guwahati, Jorhat, Panagarh, Kolkata, Agra, Allahabad, Lucknow and Kanpur, among others.British legacy 

• Started in 1889 by the British, 39 military farms have far outlived their utility of providing milk to forces
• As per the MoD plan, 12 of the 39 farms were to close by August 15, 2017, and the remaining by the end of October 2017
• Of 25,000 cows, 2,700 were given away, while some 22,000 still remain. With little interest at auction, these are now being offered at Rs 1,000 each

New Delhi, July 31

In the latest counter-terrorism action, the US Departments of State and Treasury have notified Lashkar commander Abdul Rehman al-Dakhil as a specially designated global terrorist (SDGT). The list imposes sanctions on “foreign persons who have committed, or pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of American nationals or the country’s national security, foreign policy or economy”. Among other consequences, all of his property and interests subject to US jurisdiction are blocked, and US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with him, said the State Department.Dakhil, a longtime member of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), was an operational leader for the attacks carried out in India between 1997 and 2001. In 2004, Dakhil was captured in Iraq by British forces and held in US custody. He was transferred to Pakistan in 2014. After his release, Dakhil returned to work for LeT as divisional commander for the Jammu region. — TNS

The road to spirituality and prime ministership was coincidentally also marked by his third marriage to the scholarly-austere-mystic Bushra Maneka.

Tags: imran khan, hafiz saeed, nawaz sharif

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar,  July 22

At least three militants behind the abduction and killing of a trainee constable were killed in an encounter with security forces in south Kashmir’s Kulgamdistrict of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday, the police said.

The gunfight erupted at Wani Mohallah, Khudwani, some 65 km from Srinagar, when joint teams of the police, Army and CRPF launched a cordon and search operation in the area after an input about militant presence.

“The CASO (cordon and search operation) turned into an encounter when hiding militants opened fire at around 5.30 am, injuring one Army jawan. In the gunfight that followed, all three militants were killed,” a police officer said. “We have recovered two AK rifles and a carbine.”

Police sources said one of the slain militants is suspected to be a Pakistani national.

Police said the trio was involved in the abduction and killing of the cop in the district on Saturday.

“Terrorists involved in the abduction and killing of Constable Saleem yesterday have been killed in an encounter at #Khudwani Kulgam. Search continues,” J&K Police tweeted after the gunfight.

A policeman, Mohammad Saleem Shah of Mutalhama Kulgam, was killed by militants after he was abducted from his house. His body was recovered from a nursery village, Redwani Payeen, yesterday afternoon. Police had said the body bore severe torture marks.

Late on Saturday, militant group Hizbul Mujahideen had released a “confessional statement” of the cop. (With inputs from Suhail A Shah in Anantnag)