Current Events :
The marks on the bodies of the militants do not indicate that they were killed today. It seems they have been killed 6-7 days ago and brought here KUPWARA RESIDENTS
SRINAGAR: An army soldier, who was wounded during an encounter with militants in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Saturday, died on Sunday.
Meanwhile, thousands of people participated in the funeral of the five militants, who were killed in the encounter.
An army spokesman said Naik Gawade Pandurang Mahadev sustained head injuries during the gunfight in Chak Drugmulla village of Kupwara and was evacuated to 92 Base Hospital for treatment where he succumbed to his injuries on Sunday.
“He made a supreme sacrifice while fighting valiantly with the terrorists in Drugmulla village on May 21,” the spokesman said.
The mortal remains of the soldier will be flown to his village in Sindudurg district of Maharashtra after necessary formalities. Security forces said five militants were killed and two soldiers were wounded in a fierce gun battle in Drugmulla on Saturday.
‘STAGED GUNFIGHT’
On Sunday, thousands of people from the villages of Kupwara converged at Chak Drugmulla to participate in the funeral procession of the militants amid profreedom slogans.
After the militants were laid to rest in the morning, locals took to streets to protest.
Some locals alleged that the militants were killed in a “staged gun fight”. They said the state of dead bodies of the militants indicated that “they might have been killed a week back”. “The marks on the bodies of the militants do not indicate that they were killed today. It seems they have been killed 6-7 days ago and brought here,” the residents alleged.
Kupwara superintendent of police Aijaz Ahmad denied the allegations: “This is not true.” He said the militants were foreigners and seem to have infiltrated recently. Internet services were also suspended in Kupwara as authorities feared that situation could escalate owing to the spread of rumours.
WASHINGTON: Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan, the Afghanistan government said Sunday. The US announced it had targeted the terror outfit’s chief but gave no official confirmation of his death.
Mansour — who took charge of the Taliban after Mullah Omar’s death became public in 2015 — posed a “continuing, imminent threat” to US personnel and Afghans, secretary of state John Kerry said. “If people want to stand in the way of peace, continue to threaten and kill and blow people up, we have no recourse but to respond and I think we responded appropriately.”
US department of defense press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement Saturday, “Today, the department of defense conducted an airstrike that targeted Taliban leader Mullah Mansour in a remote area of the AfghanistanPakistan border region. We are still assessing the results of the strike and will provide more information as it becomes available.” But unidentified officials told US media they believed Mansour was killed, along with another Taliban figure, when his convoy was attacked by multiple drones. The strike was reportedly authorised by President Barack Obama. Confirming the death, Afghan chief executive Abdullah Abdullah tweeted, “Taliban leader Akhtar Mansour was killed in a drone strike in Quetta, Pakistan, at 04.30pm yesterday.” He said the terror chief ’s car was attacked in Dahl Bandin, referring to a district in Pakistan’s Balochistan province. Kerry said the leaders of both Pakistan and Afghanistan were notified of the airstrike. He said he’d spoken to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by phone.
Pakistan’s foreign office confirmed “this information was shared with the PM and the chief of army staff after the drone strike”. “While further investigations are being carried out, Pakistan wishes to once again state the drone attack was a violation of its sovereignty,” it said in a statement.
The foreign office said one Wali Muhammad, carrying a Pakistani passport and ID card, had entered Pakistan from the Taftan border on May 21. His passport bore a valid Iranian visa. He was travelling in a vehicle hired from a transport company in Taftan. This vehicle was found destroyed along the border with Afghanistan.
The driver, it said, has been identified as Muhammad Azam while the “identity of the second body is being verified”. There was no official statement from the Taliban.
The location of the attack would fuel further anger against Pakistan, often accused of harbouring terrorists. Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was found and killed by US special forces in a hideout in Abbottabad in 2011. Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, the 9/11 mastermind, was caught in Faisalabad in 2003. And Americans believe the entire Haqqani Network leadership is based in Pakistan. “Since the death of Mullah Omar and Mansour’s assumption of leadership, the Taliban have conducted many attacks that have resulted in the death of tens of thousands of Afghan civilians and security forces as well as numerous US and coalition personnel,” Cook said.
He called Mansour “an obstacle to peace and reconciliation between the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban”. Mansour also integrated the Haqqani Network, an independent arm of the Taliban, into the outfit, according its leader Sirajuddin Haqqani a larger role. According to reports and analysts, Haqqani now calls the shots in planning Taliban military operations in Afghanistan, targeting the local government and US-led coalition forces.
Shubhadeep Choudhury
Tribune News Service
Bengaluru, May 17
The Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), the DRDO lab handling the development of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas, today said it was preparing two prototypes of the indigenously designed fighter jet for the next phase of the programme.While one prototype is being readied for equipping the jet with the air-to-air refuelling capability, the other is being prepared for installation of a gun in the LCA.“The gun trial is expected to begin in the third quarter of this year. The air-to-air refuelling tests are slated to begin from December,” said ADA chief Commodore CD Balaji.Balaji spoke to The Tribune after IAF Chief Arup Raha flew a trainer LCA-Tajas here today. “It is my first sortie in Tejas, it is a good aircraft for induction into IAF operations,” a Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL, the contractor for manufacturing the jet) press release quoted Raha as having said.Raha, who sat in the rear seat of the two-seater trainer variant LCA with Group Captain M Rangachari in the front, flew the plane for about 30 minutes after taking off from the HAL airport in the afternoon.“It is a moral boosting gesture from the IAF Chief and shows the faith our customer has in our abilities,” said T Suvarna Raju, CMD, HAL.Raha, himself a decorated fighter pilot, is the first IAF Chief to check out an LCA trainer personally. The combat-variant LCAs are single-seater aircraft meant for solo flying.“The Air Chief Marshal carried out manoeuvres checking out the entire flying envelope of the aircraft. He carried out simulated air-to-air and air-to-ground attacks. He also assessed the advanced modes of the radar and helmet-mounted display sight (HMDS),” HAL said.The series production of the LCA-Tejas has already commenced at the HAL facility at Bengaluru and the first squadron of the LCA is expected to be formed by July 2016.However, the first squadron of LCAs (20 aircraft) will not have the air-to-air refuelling facility, a must for all modern aircraft, or the gun meant for use in a dog-fight scenario. The supersonic fighter, powered by an American GE engine, though, will be armed with other weapons tried and tested in various firing ranges in the country.The IAF requires six LCA squadrons to replace its aging fleet of Soviet era MiG 21 and MiG 27 jets
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday sought reply of the Centre on a PIL seeking directions to the government to recruit married women law graduates in the Judge Advocate General (JAG) department of the Indian Army like similarly-placed men.
A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath issued notice to Ministry of Defence and the Army’s Directorate General of Recruiting and sought their replies by 10 August, saying the issue “requires consideration”.
The court directed the government to explain its stand with regard to issues raised in the petition which has contended that “at present, Judge Advocate General Department of Indian Army recruits males (married/unmarried) and females (only unmarried) for serving in the Indian Army.
“Due to this institutionalised discrimination, married female candidates who are law graduates are being deprived of their right to serve in JAG department of Indian Army,” the petition, by Kush Kalra, has claimed.
The petitioner has also said in his plea that “this discrimination on grounds of gender is violative of fundamental right of equality before law, right not to be discriminated on the ground of sex, equality of opportunity in matters of public employment, fundamental right to practice any profession and occupation and human rights of the women.”
The petition, filed through advocate Jyotika Kalra, has also sought that the eligibility conditions prohibiting the entry of married female candidates in the JAG department be declared unconstitutional.
The petition also states that aggrieved by “discrimination against females”, the petitioner had written a letter on September 19, 2015, to the Army requesting it to recruit married female candidates in the JAG department.
However, he had not received any reply the petition said.
It has also alleged “uneven distribution/allocation of seats for women” in recruitment into JAG as vacancies advertised for men were 10 and only four for women.
Srinagar, May 16
As part of centenary celebrations of the Srinagar-based Chinar Corps, three cycling expeditions were simultaneously flagged off today from Baramulla, Leh and Nagrota.The Chinar leg of the cycling expedition was flagged off from the War Memorial at Baramulla by the General Officer Commanding, Dagger Division, Major General JS Nain, in the presence of large number of school students and prominent citizens of Baramulla, a defence spokesman said.While flagging off the cycle expedition by the Himalayan Brigade, the GOC highlighted the significance of the event and immense contributions of Chinar Corps in the development and security of the region and urged the youth to serve the nation to the best of their ability, said the defence official.All three teams will be flagged in on May 25 at the headquarters of Chinar corps in Badami Bagh Cantonment, Srinagar.The spokesman said the cycling expeditions would be traversing through a difficult terrain and cover the historical routes of Zojila, Mughal Road and the Uri-Kupwara axis where famous battles have been fought by the Army safeguarding J&K.“The cycling expeditions, along each route, shall cover a distance of 450 km traversing through the Ladakh, Kashmir and Jammu regions of the state,” he said. — TNS
A scuffle happened between officers and jawans at an Army unit in Arunachal Pradesh following the death of a jawan during a training session.
The jawan reportedly died of chest pain during a routine training activity, an officer said.
“The jawan complained of chest pain prior to a route march and was checked by the unit medical officer who found him fit. He later collapsed during the march. He was rushed to the field ambulance where he died,” the officer said.
The Army headquarter has ordered investigation into the incident.
The Army is playing down the incident by saying it is not a case of any mutiny. A few jawans got emotional and agitated leading to minor scuffle. No one was injured seriously.
He said that 4-5 jawans became emotional while being consoled by their adjutant, the Captain. They got agitated leading to a scuffle, he said, adding that no one was injured.
Washington, May 10
A US navy warship sailed close to a disputed reef in the South China Sea on Tuesday, a US Department of Defense official said, days after China warned criticism of its claim would rebound like a coiled spring.
The freedom of navigation operation by the USS William P Lawrence, travelling within 12 nautical miles of Chinese-occupied Fiery Cross Reef, was to “challenge excessive maritime claims of some claimants in the South China Sea”, Defence Department spokesman Bill Urban said.
“These excessive maritime claims are inconsistent with international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention in that they purport to restrict the navigation rights that the United States and all states are entitled to exercise,” Urban said in an emailed statement.
“No claimants were notified prior to the transit, which is consistent with our normal process and international law.” Facilities on Fiery Cross Reef include a 3,000-metre (10,000-foot) runway and Washington is concerned China will use it to press its extensive territorial claims at the expense of weaker rivals.
The Pentagon last month called on China to reaffirm it has no plans to deploy military aircraft in the disputed Spratly Islands after Beijing used a military plane to evacuate sick workers from the Fiery Cross airstrip.
The move comes ahead of a visit by US President Barack Obama to Vietnam later this month.
China has reacted with anger to previous US freedom of navigation operations, and says that there has never been a problem with freedom of navigation or overflight in the South China Sea.
Criticism of China over the South China Sea will rebound like a coiled spring, a Chinese diplomat said on Friday, as a US warship visited Shanghai against a backdrop of rising tension in the region. — Reuters
