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

Samaan Lateef

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, March 25

The Jammu and Kashmir Government is mulling over giving Tragbal meadows in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district to the Army for setting up an artillery firing range in lieu of the Tosa Maidan field firing range.Taking into consideration the damage which could be caused to flora and fauna, the government has dropped the plan to hand over land at Tulail in the Gurez area of the district to the Army and is instead thinking over giving the higher reaches of Tragbal, adjacent to Razdan Pass, for a field firing range.“The Army is in possession of over 200 hectares at Tragbal. It would be proper that the Army expands its possession there so that we could assuage public anger,” said an official of the state Home Department.The proposal to hand over Tragbal came after the state government faced public criticism for allowing the Army to set up an artillery firing range at Bajpathri in Budgam district or at Tulail in Bandipora district.The Army had sought notification of the Bajpathri meadows for setting up a field firing range after the previous government headed by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah refused to extend lease of the adjacent meadow of Tosa Maidan for its use as a firing range on April 18, 2014.However, the move was opposed by civil society, separatists, opposition National Conference and Save Yusmarg Movement, saying the firing range will adversely affect the biodiversity of the area.Even the National Green Tribunal, in January this year, raised voice against handing over the Bajpathri meadow to the Army for undertaking field firing drills.Later, the Army moved a proposal of Tulail in Gurez for setting up a firing range. However, the move has been opposed by the people of Gurez, saying it will affect the human habitation, besides the flora and fauna.More than 60 civilians have lost their lives due to the explosion of shells in Tosa Maidan, which was under the Army’s control for more than 50 years.In September last year, the state government had agreed to examine the Army’s demands for notifying land for setting up an artillery firing range in lieu of Tosa Maidan.A high-level committee of the state Home Department and the Army has been mandated to look for an alternate and feasible place for a firing range.Officials say the Army is yet to submit the denotification letter on the Tosa Maidan meadow.Chief Secretary BR Sharma said the process to provide land to the Army against the Tosa Maidan field firing range was yet to be concluded. “We are considering several options, but the final decision is yet to be taken,” Sharma said.

Firing range likely in Bandipora

• The proposal to hand over the Tragbal meadows in Bandipora district to the Army for a field firing range came after the government faced criticism for allowing the Army to set up an artillery firing range at Bajpathri in Budgam district or at Tulail in Bandipora district
• The Army had sought notification of the Bajpathri meadows for setting up a field firing range after the government headed by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah refused to extend lease of the adjacent meadow of Tosa Maidan for its use as a firing range on April 18, 2014

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.

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.

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

Raman Mohan
Like everything else that is overexploited, the SYL Canal row too is subject to the law of diminishing returns. For some 20 odd years, this controversy did give a decisive edge to the party that succeeded in raising passions of the populace over this issue. But the ill-fated project lost that potential a long time ago.

DSP Rajpura R S Sohal briefing the anti-riot police deployed along the SYL canal near Rajpura. A public notice has been put up by the police after the Supreme Court order on maintaining status quo, thus barring any activity on the SYL canal Tribune Photo: Manoj Mahajan

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal appears intent on riding the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal horse in order to romp home in the next assembly poll due in about a year. Towards that end, he has taken on the Supreme Court even by refusing to accept its order to maintain status quo on the land acquired for the construction of the canal through a resolution passed by the legislative assembly. That shows his resolve not to let go of the canal row under any circumstances till the 2017 election. Having spent a life time in politics, the senior Badal may well be risking all in what could turn out to be his last bid at the office of the Chief Minister of Punjab.  Ever since Haryana came into being in 1966, the canal issue has been used by politicians of both states for electoral gains. For some 20 odd years, this controversy did give a decisive edge to the party that succeeded in raising passions of the populace over this issue. But the ill-fated project lost that potential a long time ago.The last time this issue was tested for its political potency was in 2004. In June that year, the apex court directed Punjab to complete the work in its territory. However, on July 12, 2004, the then Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had the Punjab Assembly pass The Punjab Termination of Agreements Bill, 2004, thus terminating its water-sharing agreements, and effectively stopping the construction of the canal in Punjab. But, this did not improve the chances of the Congress in the next assembly poll in 2007. The Congress lost and the Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party combine came to power. Since then, the canal as a political tool had been gathering dust till it was suddenly rescued from oblivion by the Punjab Chief Minister as his weapon of choice for the impending electoral battle.So far as the people of Haryana are concerned, the issue of the canal is no longer an issue that will decide the fate of an election. The SYL Canal issue lost its emotional and political potency with the eclipse of the maverick Devi Lal, former Deputy Prime Minister. The last time the people of Haryana attached importance to this issue was in 1985, after the Rajiv Gandhi-Harchand Singh Longowal accord was signed. The late Devi Lal, who was in political wilderness then after being completely outplayed by that master practitioner of realpoltik the late Bhajan Lal grabbed the chance offered by the accord and launched an agitation which swept him to power in 1987. That was the last election in which the SYL Canal issue had played a decisive role, so much so that months before the election the then Chief Minister Bansi Lal took panches and sarpanches to SYL project sites in Punjab to see the progress of construction.In the 1991 elections, the failure of the Devi Lal clan to run a government for a full five-year term was the main issue not the SYL Canal or other territorial disputes. Similarly, in 1996, the people put their faith in Bansi Lal mainly due to his promise to ban liquor in Haryana. Since then, the people of the two states have attached little importance to the SYL Canal. This indifference towards the project is more pronounced in Haryana than in Punjab. Psychologically, the farmers of Haryana appear to have resigned to their fate. Streetwise as they are, they know by now that whatever their chosen politicians say about the canal, the project is not going to materialise. A farmer put it succinctly: We are not losing something we had. So, it is a lesser loss considering the lost asset was never in our hands. In Punjab, there is a subtle psychological difference. By and large, farmers know that they stand to gain nothing should Punjab abandon this project. Already they are utilising whatever is available from the rivers. Additionally, they are pumping out underground water at an alarming rate. So, the Punjab farmers do not stand to gain substantially from abandoning the project. There are several other reasons why the SYL Canal figures nowhere in the list of priorities of the voters in Haryana. The change in the demographic pattern has a lot to do with the relegation of this issue to the back burner. In Haryana, over 65 per cent of voters are under the age of 35. The SYL Canal is an issue they have just heard of. They have heard politicians cry themselves hoarse over this issue but this generation does not relate to the issue in the same way as their elders did. Besides, the new generation is losing interest in agriculture itself. They are more interested in jobs rather than in more water for their already fragmented land holdings. Demographic patterns and land holdings have changed in Punjab too just as much as in Haryana. Rampant corruption, unemployment, the problem of drug addiction, financial mess and lack of industry and infrastructure are far more important and closer to voters in Punjab than the SYL Canal.  As a result, the SYL Canal issue is now close to the hearts of political parties and their leaders only not the man on the street. No wonder then that Badal’s moves have failed to evoke any reaction among the people of Haryana which could have provoked a reaction from the farmers of Punjab much to the glee of Badals. Of course it is different for politicians and political parties. Haryana politicians, including Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, reacted meekly at first and then stridently in a bid to outdo rivals. That is likely to continue until the issue is once again buried. As against this, people in Delhi attach more importance to the project for the simple reason that that the formal death of the canal project would end all hopes of an improved supply of drinking water there in the near future. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has, therefore, erred by opposing the construction of the canal. The prospects of his party winning the next assembly poll in Punjab have obviously weighed on his mind more than the needs of the people of Delhi. He could well end up annoying voters in the national capital.Nevertheless, the political death of the canal issue does not diminish the importance of the project for Haryana at least. The water is crucial for the thirsty fields and parched throats in several districts of Haryana. The only way to come to an amicable settlement is to sit across the table, forget politics and just keep the interests of the people of the two states in mind. The leaders should keep in mind that had there been no division of Punjab, river waters would have been shared equitably among all areas. A boundary and a new name are hardly any reason not to share natural resources. If politicians of the two states can share space in Chandigarh, why not river waters? The writer is a veteran Haryana journalist.

Army personnel and villagers pay tributes to Maj Amit Deswal at his native Surheti village in Jhajjar on Friday

Chief of Army Staff, Gen Dalbir Singh, and his wife Namita Suhag console the martyr’s wife, Neeta, and father Rishiraj Deswal during the homage-paying ceremony at Palam Airport in New Delhi on Friday. Tribune photos

Tribune News Service

Jhajjar, April 15

Heart-rending scenes were witnessed as the body of martyr Major Amit Deswal (31) arrived at his residence in HUDA Sector-6 here today. Major Deswal was killed in an encounter with terrorists in Manipur on Wednesday nightAmit’s mother Vedvati and wife Neeta cried, while his three-year-old son Arjun was unaware of the tragedy that had struck the family. The body was brought by an Army chopper.Wrapped in the Tricolour, the body was later taken to his native Surheti village, about 12 km from here, where his younger brother Ankit Deswal lit the pyre. A contingent of the Army reversed arms and fired a volley of shots in the air to bid farewell to the departed soul.Apart from representatives of various social and non-political organisations, former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Agriculture Minister Om Prakash Dhankar, MLAs Geeta Bhukkal, Raghuvir Kadian and Naresh Kaushik, DGP KP Singh and other administrative officers paid tributes to the martyr by laying wreaths on his body.Retired Subedar Rishiraj Deswal, inconsolable father of Amit, said his son had laid down his life for the sake of the nation and he was proud of his son.Maj Amit of 21 Para SF was killed in a gun battle with ZUF militants in the densely-forested Nungba area during a combing operation undertaken by the Rashtriya Rifles and Special Forces personnel.“Amit, who was born on January 15, 1985, was so passionate about serving the nation that he had started preparations for competitive examinations after 12th class and qualified CDS examination at the age of 19 years in 2005,” said Amit’s uncle Shamsher Singh.He maintained Amit got commissioned in 2006 and his first posting was with an Artillery unit. He had secured ‘Commando Daggar’ during ‘Ghatak’ course after joining the elite Para unit in January 2011. Amit had last visited his home in Jhajjar in February to attend his brother’s marriage.

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)