Retd army general who served in J&K urges for greater use of ‘soft power’ in the Valley and reiterates the need to engage with the people and change how they perceive India

As debate rages over the death of five protesters in the Kashmiri town of Handwara, Lt Gen (retd) Syed Ata Hasnain feels that the army needs to ease up on using its power arbitrarily against citizens.

“The army need not come in contact with mobs in Kashmir. We need to use 80 per cent soft power and 20 per cent hard. Instead, we are doing the reverse,” Hasnain said, while speaking on ‘National Security and the Threat of Radicalisation — A perspective’ at Abasaheb Garware College on Sunday. The lecture was organised by Maharashtra Education Society and Akhil Bharatiya Poorva Sainik Seva Parishad, Pune.

Hasnain was handpicked as general officer commanding (corps commander) at the Srinagar- headquartered 15 Corps when Kashmir was rocked by the turbulent stone-throwing agitation in 2010. All military operations in the Valley are controlled by them and they are popularly known as the Chinar Corps. His approach had weakened the militants and created an atmosphere of hope in the Valley which saw a major increase in tourist traffic afterwards.

“During the beginning of militancy in 1989-90, it was necessary to use more hard power. But, things have changed now. The number of militants has come down to 250 from over 5,000 during the early 1990s. My experience shows that the army generates only 10 per cent intelligence, while the rest comes from the special operations group of the J&K police. The army should remain in the rural areas and the police and Central Reserve Police Force should deal with mobs,” the general said.

“Soft power involves the army penetrating the villages and helping people in various tasks to create a bridge with them, while ensuring that this approach is not misused by militants and hardliners. When I met the people of J&K, they would hand over small chits mentioning their problems. I found that there had been no effort to connect with the masses in the last 25 years. There is a need to create hope among Kashmiris and change their perception about India,” he further explained.

“Maoists use ideology while terrorist organisations like ISIS use religion to lure people. None of the Indian Muslims joined Al- Qaeda but there have been attempts by at least 27 to join ISIS,” stated the second generation army officer. Without naming Darul- Uloom, Deoband, one of the largest Islamic institutions in the world, Hasnain said, “The Saharanpur-based institution should come out against (Islamic) terrorism more often and not once in three years.”

He also believes that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence is trying to create problems using certain fault lines. “We need Indian nationalism and not subnationalism based on regions within the country. Anti-national elements use social media aggressively to create rifts which we should guard against,” he concluded.

█ We need Indian nationalism and not sub-nationalism based on regions within the country. Anti-national elements use social media aggressively to create rifts which we should guard against

– LT GEN (RETD) SYED ATA HASNAIN

Tribune News Service

Haridwar, April 29

A team of the National Investigative Agency (NIA) today arrived in Landaura of Haridwar district in connection with four suspected terrorists arrested in January this year. The arrested youths had links with terror groups and were tasked with carrying out bomb blast during Ardh Kumbh.NIA sleuths went to the house of Azimussan, one of the arrested suspects, and questioned his family members. They also conducted a search operation near the house.The sleuths then headed to the Landaura Railway station where another arrested youth Osama had built a temporary room, near a tubewell, above which they used to store ammunition.An NIA expert also drew a sketch map of the railway station, tubewell, Osama’s room and the nearby area.When mediapersons tried to click photographs of the NIA team, an NIA official on account of secrecy and sensitivity of the case told them not to do so and deleted photos taken by a photographer.SP, Rural, Parmendra Dobhal said the NIA works on its own and hence the district police had nothing to do with the case until the central agency approaches them.Notably, four persons were arrested from Roorkee on January 20, when Adh Kumbh had just begun, for allegedly providing information to terrorists about the Ardh Kumbh security, traffic and other aspects.The initial probe had revealed that the arrested persons were in touch with terrorists through the internet, social media and mobile phone chatting. Laptops, mobile phones and other technical equipment were seized from their possession.All four had done a recce of Har-ki-Pauri, Haridwar railway station, bus station, important government offices, buildings, Mela Control Building near Har-ki-Pauri, important bridges and the public sector undertaking Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited building. They had also surveyed the Roorkee railway station, the Bengal Engineering Group military cantonment area and the Central Building Research Institute. A special Delhi police team in coordination with the Central intelligence agencies had arrested the suspects after getting substantial intelligence inputs of their links with terrorists.

Forty-one soldiers have lost their lives in Siachen Glacier since 2013, the government said today. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar in a written reply in Lok Sabha said 10 soldiers were killed in 2013, eight and nine in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Till March 31, 14 soldiers have died this year, Parrikar said, adding medical equipment existed in all posts for emergencies. pti

41 soldiers died at Siachen Glacier since 2013, says Army

Jammu, April 29

At least 41 soldiers have sacrificed their lives in the line of duty at the Siachen Glacier, from 2013 till March 31 this year.Northern Command’s spokesperson Col SD Goswami said 10 soldiers died in 2013, eight in 2014 and nine in 2015 at the Glacier. “Another 14 soldiers died till March 31 this year at the world’s highest battlefield,” he added.He said adequate compensation was provided to personnel deployed in difficult terrains in border areas, in form of salaries and compensatory allowances. About infiltration bids on the LoC, he said there were 118 infiltration attempts from Pakistan into J&K in 2015. — TNS

Satnam Singh

Vishav Bharti

‘Whose obituary do you want to write?’ he would have laughed at me. ‘G Fellow’, who was admired by the radical Left cadre as a commentator on international politics? Gurmeet Singh — the name that he shed decades ago in Amritsar when he joined the Naxalite movement in the 1970s? Or Satnam, whose classic travelogue Jangalnama was hailed by mainstream English critics as India’s answer to ‘Red Star Over China,’ a 1937 book by Edgar Snow? The account of the Communist Party of China was written when they were a guerrilla army still obscure to Westerners.Satnam, who died in Patiala on Wednesday night at the age of 64, lived many lives. Sometimes as an underground Maoist guerrilla, sometimes as a democratic rights activist on fact-finding missions on human rights violations in Kashmir and Gujarat genocide, or as a creative writer, who would write with equal felicity in Punjabi, Hindi and English.Like many youngsters in 1970s, he also left home with a dream that the world can be made a better place to live. “But he was one of the few who remained steadfast in his belief till their last,” says Prof Bawa Singh, his close friend and former vice-chairman, National Commission for Minorities.All these decades, besides political activism, Satnam kept on writing short stories and political commentary under different pen names. “He had written around 15 short stories but nobody bothered to preserve them and he himself was busy in activism, so most of these are lost,” reveals Singh. Among those writings only one story, World’s Oldest Profession, on prostitution that appeared in a Hindi magazine has survived.“While travelling in Bastar in 2001, it never crossed my mind that I will write something,” he would often say about Jangalnama.Two years later, while reading something, the idea occurred, thus Punjabi literature’s ground-breaking travelogue was written in just 12 days. “Then I didn’t think of publishing it but some friends took the initiative in 2004,” he would tell.People were for the first time reading accounts from the jungles of Bastar that the Maoist movement was not only about Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) or killing security personnel, but it was also about how people were struggling to change their fate when the state is absent. Even Arundhati Roy, who admired the work as “the best work on India’s Maoist movement”, later acknowledged that his book inspired her to visit Bastar. But he refused to sell his soul to the logic of manufactured fame.Around five years ago, when Operation Green Hunt was at its peak, he surfaced again after traversing the virtual war zone of Bastar for several weeks. How was it, I asked? “I do not know why I no more fear death,” he quipped.Now I remember his lines in Jangalnama about tribal fighters, “The purity and conviction of their aim gives them the courage to look death in the eye. They love life but they don’t care about death.” He was no different in his life. Nor will he be in his death.(The writer translated Jangalnama into English)

—Reuters file photo

Washington, April 26

The US military conducted “freedom of navigation” operations against 13 countries last year, including several to challenge  China’s claims in the South and East China seas, according to an annual Pentagon report released on Monday.The operations were against China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Libya, Malaysia, the Maldives, Oman, the Philippines and Vietnam, the report said.It did not specify how many such operations were conducted against each of those countries. The US military carried out single operations against Taiwan, Nicaragua and Argentina, for a total of 13 countries, the department said in the two-page report.The freedom of navigation operations involves sending US Navy ships and military aircraft into areas where other countries have tried to limit access. The aim is to demonstrate that the international community does not accept such restrictions.The US military has repeatedly conducted operations disputing China’s maritime claims in recent years and did so again in 2015, a year in which Beijing’s island-building activity in the resource-rich areas of the South China Sea led to rising tensions in the region.A US guided-missile destroyer conducted a freedom of navigation patrol near one of China’s man-made islands in the Spratly archipelago in October. US military flights near the islands have been warned off.US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the Navy would continue to operate in the region despite China’s condemnation of the patrols.China’s Defense Ministry said in a statement on its website late on Monday that it was deeply concerned by such operations.”The United States carries out militarisation in the South China Sea in the name of freedom of navigation and overflight, threatens coastal nations’ sovereignty and security and destroys regional peace and stability,” the ministry said.It made the comment in response to what it said were reports of recent US military flights near Scarborough Shoal – known by Beijing as Huangyan Island – an area China seized control of after a stand-off with the Philippine coast guard in 2012.Admiral Harry Harris, the head of US Pacific Command, said this year the Navy would step up the freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea because of concerns China is attempting to assert its dominance by building military facilities there.US freedom of navigation operations last year also challenged China’s claims of jurisdiction in the airspace above its maritime Exclusive Economic Zone as well as restrictions it has tried to impose on aircraft flying through an Air Defense Identification Zone over the East China Sea.The number of countries the United States challenged last year was down from 2014, when it targeted 19 countries. That was the largest number in more than a decade.Iran and the Philippines have been the most frequently challenged countries over the years, mainly because they sit astride busy sea lanes whose use they have tried to limit or govern. —Reuters

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The Indian Army is currently conducting a major exercise in the deserts of the western state of Rajasthan to test its operation capabilities during a battle.

The military exercise， titled Shatrujeet， is being undertaken by the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh’s elite Mathura-based Strike 1 corps， the Indian Defense Ministry said.

The exercise is focusing on “validating integrated battle theatre fighting concept” incorporating new-age technologies， weapon platforms and systems as well as long range precision targeting vectors， Indian Defence spokesperson Lt Col Manish Ojha told the media Saturday.

In fact， the Indian Army regularly conducts such exercises to evaluate its operation capabilities during a war with the enemy.

The exercise will continue till April 23.

jaisalmer: With about 30,000 soldiers in action, the Indian Army is conducting a major exercise ‘Shatrujeet’ by the elite Mathura-based Strike Corp in desert area of Mahajan field firing range of Rajasthan, wherein the capability to strike, deep into the enemy territory in an integrated air-land battle environment is being evaluated. Now, this exercise is in the last phase and next week on April 22, army chief D S Suhag is likely to come and review the exercise.
The operationally-oriented exercise is focusing on validating integrated theatre battle fighting concept by incorporating new age technologies, weapon platforms and systems as well as long-range precision targeting vectors. Mathura Strike Crops’ Core Commander Lt Gen Shaukin Chauhan on Saturday reviewed integrated operational manoeuvres, including insertion of heliborne and airborne activity.
The focus of the exercise is to achieve joint and seamless coordination among all the forces in a nuclear biological chemical warfare scenario so as to deliver the enemy, a lethal punch with full might at a lightening speed. In order to achieve this aim, high-end technology and all the latest multi-dimensional modern weaponry at the disposal of the armed forces is being utilised. In the last decade or so, there has been a paradigm shift in India’s offensive doctrine and capability and such exercises are undertaken regularly by the Army to train its troops in their offensive role and weapon usage.

In the changing scenario, the Indian Army looking to the increasing new challenges across the border, is trying to make its war talent strong and better in short notice time especially in the context of fighting war in desert.

Lethality and might of Indian Army with Indian Air Force was fully on display in this exercise. Most modern equipment in the inventory of the Indian Army fired with precision in cohesion with each other with the main attraction being T-90 tanks, which are counted amongst the most technologically advanced tanks in the world. The tanks are capable of firing a variety of ammunition and missiles with sharp accuracy both by day as well as night.
Defence spokesman Manish Ojha said that Indian Army undertakes such exercises at regular intervals at different levels to ensure forces are provided real war-like situations and are kept in high state of battle readiness. The formation and units have been undergoing operation-oriented training for past two months. Post-preparatory training manoeuvres at subordinate units and formation level, the Strike 1 is now poised to conduct integrated operational manoeuvres to validate its operational plans in simulated high tempo battlefield environment and terrain.