Current Events :
Authorities have ordered prohibition on sale, stitching and storage of army uniforms and combat pattern dresses in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district to check their misuse by anti-national elements. Kishtwar Deputy Commissioner Rajesh Kumar Shavan ordered the prohibition. “Whereas, this…
Authorities have ordered prohibition on sale, stitching and storage of army uniforms and combat pattern dresses in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district to check their misuse by anti-national elements.
Kishtwar Deputy Commissioner Rajesh Kumar Shavan ordered the prohibition. “Whereas, this threat posed by subversive elements is an imminent danger to public safety, peace, tranquillity and security that warrants immediate preventive …,” he said in an order issued on Saturday.
Issuing a set of regulations and restrictions, the district magistrate said all authorised private firms and shops procuring, storing and selling combat clothes shall immediately inform in writing to the nearest police stations regarding their authority to carry on with this business.
The time limit for such information will be 15 days from the date of issuance and publication of this order. All authorised persons private firms/shops dealing in such articles shall submit fortnightly reports of all the sales of combat/Khadi dress/cloth made by them along with detailed particulars of the Army/paramilitary/police personnel to whom such sales have been made,” the order said.
The list shall be provided by the dealer or dealers to Station House Officer’s concerned on fortnightly basis.
“The register carrying all such details will be maintained properly by each dealer and shall be made available as and when the inspection of the shop is conducted by competent authorities,” the order said, directing all such authorised firms to sell such articles to bonafide members of armed forces after verifying their identity and recording the names and the units where ever employed on the register.
Tehsildar, executive magistrate first class or an officer of the police of the rank of Assistant Sub-Inspector or above shall have the authority to check and inspect such registers, the order said.
Lists correct process and bank accounts
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has warned that a WhatsApp message seeking donations for the modernisation of the Indian Army and for the welfare of soldiers’ families is fake.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the MoD clarified that the message, which mentions a bank account for donations, is fraudulent and not linked to the ministry. It falsely claims a Cabinet decision and invokes actor Akshay Kumar’s name as the prime mover behind the initiative.
“The account details in the said message are wrong, leading to online donations being dishonoured. People must remain cautious and not fall prey to such fraudulent messages,” the MoD said.
The ministry also outlined the legitimate process for making donations towards the welfare of soldiers killed or disabled in active operations. Donations can be made to the Armed Forces Battle Casualty Welfare Fund (AFBCWF), which provides immediate financial assistance to the families of soldiers from the Army, Navy and Air Force.
The fund is maintained by the Indian Army on behalf of the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare, Ministry of Defence. Contribution can be made directly in the account of Armed Forces Battle Casualties Welfare Fund.
Details of the bank accounts are: Armed Forces Battle Casualties Welfare Fund, Canara Bank, South Block, Defence Headquarters New Delhi – 110011. Its IFSC code is CNRB0019055 and the account number is 90552010165915.
There is another account: Armed Forces Battle Casualties Welfare Fund
State Bank of India, Parliament Street, New Delhi – 110011.
Its IFSC Code is SBIN0000691 and the account number is 40650628094.
Alternatively, donations can be made via demand draft drawn in favour of AFBCWF payable at New Delhi, and sent by post to: Accounts Section, Adjutant General’s Branch, Ceremonial & Welfare Directorate, Room No 281-B, South Block
IHQ of MoD (Army), New Delhi – 110011.
This action comes in the backdrop of the Pahalgam terror incident
The Centre has banned 16 Pakistani YouTube channels, including Dawn News, Samaa TV, Ary News and Geo News, for disseminating provocative and communally sensitive content, false and misleading narratives, and misinformation against India, its Army, and security agencies.
The decision was taken following recommendations from the Ministry of Home Affairs in the wake of the April 22 terror attack at Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam in which 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed.
The government has also sent a formal letter to BBC over it terming terrorists “militants” in its reportage on the Pahalgam tragedy.
“On the recommendations of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Government of India has banned Pakistani YouTube channels for disseminating provocative and communally sensitive content, false and misleading narratives and misinformation against India, its Army and security agencies in the backdrop of the tragic Pahalgam terror incident in Jammu and Kashmir,” officials said.
The National Investigation Agency teams, stationed at the attack site since April 23, have intensified the search for evidence. The Army is on a high alert, launching several search operations to neutralise the terrorists following the attack.
The delivery of these aircraft would be completed by 2030, the Ministry of Defence said
India and France on Monday inked an inter-governmental agreement to procure 26 naval variants of Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 64,000 crore for the Indian Navy. The pact was sealed at a virtual event.
The delivery of these aircraft would be completed by 2030, the Ministry of Defence said.
The Governments of India and France have signed an agreement for the procurement of 26 Rafale Aircraft (22 single-seater and four twin-seater) for the Indian Navy, the MoD said.
It includes training, simulator, associated equipment, weapons and performance-based logistics. It also includes additional equipment for the existing Rafale fleet of the Indian Air Force (IAF).
The agreement has been signed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu. The signed copies of the agreement, aircraft package supply protocol and weapons package supply protocol were exchanged by Indian and French officials in the presence of Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh.
In line with the government’s thrust on Aatmanirbhar Bharat, the agreement includes transfer of technology for integration of indigenous weapons in India. It also includes setting up of production facility for Rafale fuselage as well as maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities for aircraft engine, sensors and weapons in India. The deal is expected to generate thousands of jobs and revenue for a large number of MSMEs in setting up, production and running of these facilities, the MoD said.
Manufactured by France’s Dassault Aviation, the Rafale-Marine is a carrier-borne combat-ready aircraft with proven operational capabilities in maritime environment.
Rafale-Marine has commonality with the Rafale being operated by IAF. Its procurement will substantially enhance joint operational capability, besides optimising training and logistics for the aircraft for both Indian Navy and IAF.
The induction would lead to the addition of a potent force multiplier to the Indian Navy’s aircraft carriers, substantially boosting the nation’s air power at sea.
For the fourth consecutive night, the Pakistan Army resorts to firing at the LoC
Pakistani troops continued to violate the ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) by resorting to unprovoked firing in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch and Kupwara districts, army officials said on Monday.
For the fourth consecutive night, the Pakistan Army resorted to firing at the LoC, officials said on Monday morning.
Army officials said that on the intervening night of April 27-28, the Pakistan Army posts initiated “unprovoked small arms fire across the LoC in areas opposite Kupwara and Poonch districts.”
“Indian troops responded swiftly and effectively,” the Army said.
In the last few days, the ceasefire violation took place mostly in the Kashmir region.
It is the first time that the exchange of fire has been reported in the Jammu region since the Pahalgam terror attack.
This week’s focus was on Pahalgam, domestic issues and the region
The scenic charm of Baisaran, Pahalgam, the famous tourist destination in Jammu and Kashmir, was replaced and overshadowed by the tragic news of the killing of 26 tourists. The public angst and the pain of the families who lost their near and dear ones were insurmountable. Giving an in-depth analysis of the terror attack, The Tribune had its OP-ED pages full of information and strategic analysis of what next after the attack.
In ‘Clarion call for action against Pakistan’, Lt Gen Dushyant Singh (Retd) wrote how the Pahalgam attack marked a calculated escalation in the ongoing proxy war. He called for strengthening intelligence-sharing partnerships with the US, Israel and the EU to employ technologically advanced surveillance systems and rerouting regional commerce through alternative trade routes to isolate Pakistan. In a related article by former MEA secretary, Vivek Kajtu, ‘Pahalgam terror: Govt at strategic crossroads‘, he assesses the reasons for the Pak-sponsored terror attack. The Pakistani generals are not happy about two things — the progress of India’s relations with the Afghan Taliban, and the accusation that India is responsible for the attack on the Jaffar Express in Quetta on March 11.
As long as Pakistan exists as a nation where the military has a country and not a country that has a military, state-sponsored terrorism will not go away. That’s the hard reality, writes Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari in his OPED piece ‘India must prepare for Pak endgame‘. As far as the Indian response is concerned, there has to be a broad national and political consensus for the long haul in dealing with Pakistan, he writes. Our neighbour has mistakenly believed that the people of Kashmir will tolerate bloodshed for the love of Islam and the affinity with Pakistan, writes Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (retd.) in his article ‘Pak’s renewed terror focus is a calculated shift’.
Moving to another neighbour of ours, Nepal’s King Gyanendra is trying to make the most of the public disaffection against KP Oli-led regime, which has been accused of maladministration, crony capitalism and corruption, writes former Ambassador to Nepal Jayant Prasad in his article ‘Nepal can ill afford the return of monarchy’. He believes the Nepalese will overlook his past behaviour when he throttled democracy and take his supposed makeover at face value, and in India too, certain fringe elements favouring ‘Hindutva’ think that monarchy has been the prime defender of the Hindu faith and Gyanendra will continue to represent it.
Meanwhile, after prolonged Manipur violence, finally some good news is coming from the North-east. Sanjoy Hazarika writes in his article ‘Safer roads can spur North-east’s march’ that highways and better road infrastructure have made travel easier, shortened distances, and given a boost to India’s Act East policy.
From roads and infrastructure, let’s shift our focus to education. In a soul-stirring article by sociologist Avijit Pathak, he raises a valid point in his OPED piece ‘Education for sale: Middle-class contradictions’. He questions parents raising slogans against arbitrary fee hikes: did they not know about the commodification of education when they got their children admitted to fancy public schools? Why do we, as a society, never bother to pressure the government to equip government schools with facilities to provide good education to our children?
Due to intense focus on the region, after a long time Donald Trump found himself relegated to the inside pages this past week. He has vowed to prevent Iran from possessing a nuke, while Iran is adamant on exercising its right to nuclear enrichment, says our OPED piece ‘Putting Iranian nuclear genie back is easier said than done’ by distinguished fellow, Observer Research Foundation, Manoj Joshi.
In ‘Good governance is not a show, it’s a daily grind’, former Manipur Governor and ex-J&K DGP Gurbachan Jagat comes down heavily on officers who hold meaningless flag marches, hold press conferences and like to get photographed but fail to coordinate and get things done at the grassroots level.
Senior finance journalist Sushma Ramachandran in her incisive article ‘BluSmart jolt sums up startup blues’ warns the startup ecosystem to maintain their march on the right path after EV-based taxi startup BluSmart had to shut operations following SEBI’s rap for diversion of loan funds to the owners’ personal coffers. The BluSmart saga is being cited as evidence of the dismal state of startups in the country.
A terror attack in the Valley, orchestrated from across the border, is meant to help revive the Pakistan army’s power and prestige.
WHAT is common between the terrorist attack in Pahalgam and Fauji Fresh n Freeze potato wedges? They both have to do with the Pakistani army’s commercial interests. Fauji Fresh n Freeze is one of the thousands of companies that the Pakistani military establishment owns. It gives the army an overwhelming control over the Pakistani economy, and acts as a key lever to stay in power.
The other important lever is whipping up jingoist frenzy against India. That’s where Pahalgam comes into the picture. The Pakistan army, once seen as the most stable institution in a nation disgusted with a succession of corrupt politicians, has been losing power for the past several years.
A terror attack in the Valley, orchestrated from across the border, is meant to help revive the army’s power and prestige.
The Pakistani army is essentially a commercial enterprise. It owns a big chunk of industry, land, and other assets in the country. A famous Pakistani scholar has termed this process ‘Milibus’, short for military business. When the scholar published her pioneering study, ‘Military Inc.’, in 2008, she estimated that the Pakistani armed forces owned assets worth $20 billion. At that time, Pakistan’s GDP was about $200 billion. Of course, wealth and GDP are not directly comparable, but it gives you a sense of how rich the army was.
Pakistan’s military has commercial interests in real estate, financial services, insurance, agriculture, fertilisers, food, IT, cement, mines, water resources, power plants, oil and gas, aviation, media and advertising – in short in every single sector of Pakistan’s economy. And they are used for private gains of the military elite and their hangers-on.
The Pakistan army has the Cold War to thank for this. Back then, the US was worried about India’s ties with the USSR and wanted Pakistan as an ally in the subcontinent. The US was suspicious about civilian political governments in Pakistan and preferred to back the army. The first of the military rulers, Ayub Khan, established the foundations of ‘Milibus’ in the 1960s. But the real expansion took place under General Zia ul-Haq, Pakistan’s most powerful military dictator. Zia came to power just before the Soviet Red Army invaded Afghanistan, to fight Mujahideen insurgency. The US could not enter the Afghan war directly, so it chose to go through Pakistan.
Throughout the 1980s, American money and arms, meant for the Afghan insurgents, flooded into Pakistan. Only a part of it went to the Mujahideen fighters. The rest was diverted into the private vaults of Zia’s aides, and to expand ‘Milibus’. This is when the army took over most of Pakistan’s economy.
After a decade of lull in Pak-US relations, in the 1990s, the US again needed Pakistan after 9/11. Even though Washington was now deeply suspicious of Islamabad’s connections with Al Qaida and other global Islamic terrorist networks, it had no option but to depend on the Pakistani army for operations in the frontier provinces bordering Afghanistan. This was another chance for the army to enrich itself and build military capital for the future.
Things would change from 2011, as the then US President, Barrack Obama, began a phased withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. By the end of 2016, only 8,400 American soldiers were left behind, that too, in order to train and assist the Afghan army. Pakistan was being forgotten once again.
When Donald Trump took charge in 2016, he promptly cut $1.2 billion in security aid to Pakistan, and called it a ‘terrorist haven.’ A couple of years later, Pakistan was put on the ‘grey list’ of the global terror-finance watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). That meant greater monitoring of financial transactions in Pakistan. This was a big blow to the Pakistani armed forces, since its commercial operations have always been notoriously opaque.
If Trump was hostile to Pakistan, his successor, Joe Biden, simply ignored it for the first two years in office. Washington lost all interest in Islamabad after the complete troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, a few months after Biden’s inauguration. When Biden finally did speak about Pakistan, during the congressional campaign of 2022, he had only uncharitable things to say, calling it “one of the most dangerous nations in the world.” Biden summed up the Pakistani establishment with this pithy phrase – “Nuclear weapons without any cohesion.”
Indeed, the relations were so bad that Imran Khan blamed the no-confidence motion against him, that threw him out of power, on Washington. The Pakistani army stood in the background. Stung by the FATF grey list, and the cold shoulder treatment from the US, Qamar Javed Bajwa, Pakistan’s then army chief, decided to push for peace, even with India.
The army was rewarded with FATF removing Pakistan from the grey list in 2022. It coincided with Bajwa’s retirement, and his replacement by the nation’s first truly Islamist army chief, Asim Munir. Munir’s attempt to strengthen Milibus was evident when he helped set up the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) to bring in FDI into Pakistan. All the top posts in the SIFC have been given to Munir’s men in the army. Munir, reportedly, directly negotiated deals with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries for the SIFC.
Yet, Pakistan’s economic woes have made the army extremely unpopular. Social media is full of posts critical of the army and the government. The army under Munir is especially disliked in Punjab, where it is blamed for illegally ousting Imran Khan. Munir’s latest plan to build six canals across Pakistan, to move waters into Punjab was aimed to gain public support there, but it caused collateral damage in Sindh. Protests have erupted across the southern province, where people believe the canals will cause water shortages.
Munir has been trying to divert the popular anger in Pakistan towards India. He made his intentions clear with anti-India speeches in the past few weeks. The terrorist attack in Pahalgam follows directly from that strategy — to tide over the popular opposition to the army’s plan to expand ‘Milibus.’
Aunindyo Chakravarty is a senior economic analyst.
Govt has also blocked 16 Pakistani YouTube channels for anti-India content
The Indian government has sent a formal letter to BBC over it terming terrorists “militants” in its reportage on the Pahalgam tragedy.
“On the recommendations of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Government of India has banned Pakistani YouTube channels for disseminating provocative and communally sensitive content, false and misleading narratives and misinformation against India, its Army and security agencies in the backdrop of the tragic Pahalgam terror incident in Jammu and Kashmir,” officials said.
Meanwhile, the government has blocked 16 Pakistani YouTube channels for anti-India content, including Dawn News, Irshad Bhatti, SAMAA TV, ARY NEWS, BOL NEWS, Raftar, The Pakistan Referenc, Geo News, Samaa Sports, GNN, Uzair Cricket, Umar Cheema Exclusive, Asma Shirazi, Muneeb Farooq, SUNO News and Razi Naama.
