From Chanakya to Clausewitz, strategy was never about endless conflict. It was about purpose, application & termination

Lt Gen SS Mehta Retd

WARS today do not end. They linger, mutate and justify themselves. That is not strategy. That is failure by design.

I have seen wars end. And I have seen them refuse to.

In the military, we are trained for the start. We study the opening gambit, the kinetic surge, the breach and the suppression of the enemy’s will. We understand escalation. But there is a quieter discipline that once defined strategy and is now fading. The art of the stop.

Conflicts that ended well had a simple anatomy. Not total annihilation, but clarity of objective. Someone had the spine to decide the mission was over. Not because the enemy vanished, but because the job was done. Force applied. Threshold reached. Then came the hardest command. Stop. Go home.

Today, that spine is missing. No one decides. Conflicts drift.

A war without an end state is not a campaign. It is drift with casualties.

The Indian gold standard

We do not have to search for a benchmark. In 1971, India executed one of the most decisive campaigns in modern history. It was not just victory. It was the restraint that followed. We did not linger. We did not convert success into occupation. We knew what done looked like.

In the Maldives in 1988, we intervened, restored order and withdrew. No residue. No secondary agenda. Maximum impact, minimum footprint.

Even in Sri Lanka, complex as it was, we exercised the discipline to disengage when returns diminished.

India’s restraint lay not only in what it did, but in what it chose not to strike. Infrastructure was not treated as a target. It carries the life of a society. To destroy it is to punish the very people in whose name wars are often justified.

That discipline preserved legitimacy.

Consider Operation Sindoor. Precision. Bounded. Purposeful. Held. Done. Gone.

In each case, ends defined means. Today, means risk becoming ends in themselves.

Drift dressed as doctrine

We call it hybrid war. We call it grey zone. We call it calibrated ambiguity. From the field, it looks simpler. Drift, dressed as doctrine.

In West Asia, objectives shift while operations continue. One day promises decisive victory. The next speaks of a longer campaign. Negotiations, pauses and escalation overlap until words lose meaning.

In Europe, conflict has stretched into years. Objectives have accumulated layers of geopolitics until clarity dissolves. Fighting continues not because the end state is defined, but because no one will define it.

The conflict sustains itself.

The tea stall reality

Strategy forgets who pays for drift. The strategist speaks of theatre. The citizen pays for duration.

The man at the tea stall does not read doctrine. He feels rising prices from broken supply chains that never stabilise because wars never settle. He sees families trapped in conflict zones with no exit. He lives with uncertainty that seeps into the national psyche.

When a war has a horizon, society mobilises and recovers. When it has none, the economy and spirit bend around it.

If success is never defined, it is never achieved. Failure becomes the quiet default.

The paradox of capability

We have never had more tools to end conflict, yet we are worse at finishing them. Drones, cyber operations and precision strikes allow pressure below declared war. We can sustain a condition of neither peace nor war indefinitely.

That is the trap. Capability has replaced decision.

To stop requires accountability. It requires stating what was gained and what was lost. It demands ownership. It is easier to say the situation is evolving than to declare an outcome.

The measure of force

Force must be applied with clarity and purpose. But its legitimacy lies in discrimination.

If a slap is enough, why the cane? If the objective is correction, why punish the class for the fault of one.

Infrastructure is not a battlefield. It is society’s bloodstream. Strike it, and you are no longer shaping the conflict. You are punishing the future.

Every use of force leaves a residue, not just on the target, but on the initiator. Excess shapes memory, perception and resistance. What is gained in immediacy is often lost in legitimacy.

A calibrated response corrects behaviour. An indiscriminate one scars generations. Those scars return.

Humanity as the global common

Covid-19, climate and conflict have revealed a simple truth. No crisis remains local.

A war in one region disturbs food, fuel, trade and trust across continents.

Humanity is now the ultimate global common. It survives not on declarations, but on restraint in action. If it fractures, there is no rear area left.

Win the war before the war. And if that is not possible, design for termination.

The laws we never updated

War has never been lawless. It has always carried limits.

The Geneva Conventions established the baseline. Protect the wounded. Protect prisoners of war. Protect civilians. Distinguish between combatant and non-combatant.

The Additional Protocol-I recognised that war was changing. Civilians would no longer remain distant. Distinction and proportionality became central to legitimacy.

Civilian objects shall not be attacked. Systems indispensable to survival such as food, water and essential infrastructure are protected.

But the battlefield has moved faster than the law.

Today, power grids collapse cities. Data networks carry economies. Supply chains sustain nations. These are not secondary systems. They are society itself.

And yet, they are increasingly treated as targets.

We do not need new principles. We need the discipline to apply the existing ones to the wars we are actually fighting.

The minimum we owe

Across centuries, from Sun Tzu through Chanakya, Machiavelli and Clausewitz, strategy was never about endless conflict. It was about purpose, application and termination.

Restraint is not weakness. It is control.

Wars may begin in strategy. They must end in discipline.

If we cannot design how wars end, we will inherit conflicts that never do.

Nitin Jain Tribune News Service

Ninety-seven years ago today, a 20-year-old Indian revolutionary walked into the Central Legislative Assembly in New Delhi, threw two non-lethal smoke bombs into the chamber and stood his ground. He did not run. He raised the slogan “Inquilab Zindabad!” and surrendered–choosing the courtroom over escape, so that his voice and his cause could reach every corner of a colonised country.

That act of April 8, 1929, when Bhagat Singh and his comrade Batukeshwar Dutt hurled bombs specifically engineered to create noise rather than casualties–their stated purpose being to make the “deaf ears” of the British administration hear the voice of Indian youth–set in motion a chain of events that would end on the gallows of Lahore Central Jail on March 23, 1931. He was 23.

On the 97th anniversary of that surrender, 165 files locked inside a heavily guarded civil secretariat in Lahore–examined for the first time by Professor Satvinder S Juss of King’s College, London, who travelled to Lahore over 2017-20 to dig deep into the Pakistan archives–have yielded disclosures never seen before. The files not only revealed a revolutionary, but a man of rare intellectual depth, legal brilliance, poetic sensibility and extraordinary moral courage.

Bhagat Singh’s story begins with the shooting in December 1928 of British police officer John Saunders in Lahore–retaliation for the fatal lathicharge on Lala Lajpat Rai. Bhagat Singh’s group plastered posters across the city claiming responsibility. The posters were signed in Bhagat Singh’s name. What they said has lain buried in the Lahore files for nearly a century.

Prof Juss found the poster, which stated: “We are sorry to admit that we who attach so great a sanctity to human life, we who dream of a glorious future, when man will be enjoying perfect peace and full liberty, have been forced to shed human blood.”

As he read those words, Prof Juss told The Tribune over the phone from London, he was “stopped dead in his tracks by the literary quality of these words”. “How many people today in India are able to write like this? How many even in the West can produce something of this poetic quality, this lyricism, that goes straight to the heart? That was utterly remarkable.”

Hunger strike films never explained

Every film and popular account of Bhagat Singh mentions his hunger strike in prison. None has explained what it was actually about–because the answer lay in the files.

When Bhagat Singh and his associates were held as undertrials, the British administration denied them access to newspapers as well as a proper diet. Under the jail rules of the time, any literate undertrial was entitled to one daily newspaper–The Tribune, if they read English, or a vernacular paper in their own language. This right was being withheld for Bhagat Singh.

According to Prof Juss, Bhagat Singh’s group declared they would not attend court, but go on hunger strike until the right was restored. Their demand was not about comfort, but about identity–the insistence that they were political prisoners fighting for their country, not common criminals to be stripped of rights. “There is tremendous nobility and dignity in this. Bhagat Singh and his friends were asserting their identity as freedom fighters, not common criminals, right from within the prison cell,” Prof Juss said.

The same conviction drove their demand regarding execution. They refused to be hanged. Hanging, they argued, was for criminals. As political prisoners, they were entitled to be shot. They held to that position to the end.

The files also record that on February 19, 1930, the government issued a press communique introducing new jail classification rules, dividing prisoners into categories A, B and C. Category A–the most favoured–was reserved for non-habitual prisoners of good character, education, social standing and what the rules called “habit of life”. The phrase was colonial code for prisoners who were Anglicised or Anglophile in their ways–a system designed, in effect, to reward collaboration with the occupier.

Legal masterstroke

Perhaps the most significant disclosure in the files is one that only a legally trained eye could have caught. Prof Juss believes he is the first person to have done so.

When Bhagat Singh’s case was transferred from the magistrate’s court to a specially constituted three-member tribunal–an extraordinary measure taken outside the normal judicial process–the accused refused to recognise its authority.

In handwritten documents now preserved in the files and never previously examined, they stated that they did not wish to “take any part in the proceedings of this case, because we do not recognise this government to be based on justice established by law”.

The distinction, Prof Juss explained, was constitutionally devastating. “They did not say the government was not based on justice. They said it was not based on justice according to law. Using English law itself–the very law the British had taught Indians–they were arguing that this special tribunal, set up at the whim of the Governor General outside the established courts, had no jurisdiction to try them. And if it had no jurisdiction, any sentence it passed was a nullity. It was unlawful. I think I am largely the only person, because of my training as a lawyer, who has been able to pick this up. Nobody else has,” he added.

The argument was legally sound, mounted by the accused themselves, from a prison cell, turning the tools of colonial law against the colonial state.

Building where it all happened

During one of his visits, Prof Juss walked out of the Anarkali civil secretariat and asked a question that had apparently never been formally answered: Where exactly did the Special Tribunal convene to try the Lahore conspiracy case?

Nobody in the area knew. He asked around, inquired further afield and eventually found it by driving through the city. It was Poonch House–named after the Maharaja of Poonch, and at the time functioning as a Revenue Department office. Outside the building, still intact, was a marble plaque in Urdu confirming that the Lahore conspiracy case was heard there in 1930. “No one knew where this building was,” said Prof Juss. Since his discovery, the Pakistan government–recognising its historic and tourism value–has refurbished the rooms, repainted the building and documented its significance.

Archive nobody opened: 165 files, not 135

For decades, it was believed that around 135 files on the Bhagat Singh case existed somewhere in the Lahore archives. As late as 2011, Professor Chaman Lal, a dean at Jawaharlal Nehru University, was urging someone go and examine them.

Celebrated journalist Kuldip Nayar had tried and failed. Author William Dalrymple had described the Punjab civil secretariat at Anarkali–guarded by army personnel with machine guns–as next to impossible to enter.

Prof Juss wrote to the authorities. They did not reply. He went anyway. “I knocked on the door and said ‘I am from London and I want to look at these documents’. They welcomed me with open arms,” he said.

Archive director Abbas Chuktai, himself deeply interested in Bhagat Singh, seated the professor in his own office, personally brought out the files and spent hours working through each one alongside him. The count confounded every prior estimate: not 135 files, but 165–30 more than the world had known about.

The files carry gallery admission passes for Bhagat Singh’s trial, naming those who came to watch. “His two aunts were there in that gallery–both had lost their husbands to the freedom struggle and were left childless. That is also why Bhagat Singh himself never married,” said Prof Juss. “And alongside them was Baba Gurdit Singh of the Komagata Maru ship–the man who had defied the British Empire a generation earlier. Their attendance passes are right there in the files. It tells you everything about the kind of movement this young man had become the centre of.”

The files also bear on the disputed location of the hanging. Shadman Chowk is widely cited as the site of the old Central Jail, demolished in 1965. The documents, examined by Chuktai and Prof Juss together, suggested the precise location required closer scrutiny.

All 165 files are now catalogued at the back of Prof Juss’s first book, The Execution of Bhagat Singh–the first such public record in existence. “It simply requires somebody to go back and go through these documents the way I did. I have been able to break the ice,” he said.

Man inside the cell

Bhagat Singh founded the Naujawan Bharat Sabha in March 1926 at the age of 18. Two years earlier, he had joined the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army. His entire active life, from 1924 to his execution in 1931, lasted just seven years–the last two spent in prison. “His entire period of activism was only seven years–from 1924, when he set up the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army, to the time he was hanged in 1931,” said Prof Juss. “How many leaders alive today can boast of such an achievement in such short a time?”

In that cell, a librarian named Shashtri from the Dwarkadas Library in Lahore–associated with the Servants of the People Society–smuggled books to him at personal risk. The reading list was vast: Marx, Engels and Trotsky; Thomas Paine, John Stuart Mill and Thomas Jefferson; Victor Hugo and Dostoevsky; Bertrand Russell; and the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore and Omar Khayyam. “Those who ridicule him forget that he was only 23 years old,” said Prof Juss. “How many in modern India today have the broad span of knowledge that he had? He was able to do that because prison librarian Shashtri smuggled books out for him.”

From that cell, Bhagat Singh produced over 130 documents–more than 400 pages of letters, court statements, pamphlets, essays and sketches. Many have still not been recovered. Still fewer have been read.

He was, Prof Juss argued, the intellectual forerunner of every major modern rights movement. “If you read his writings, you see that he is the intellectual forerunner of all modern rights movements–both Franz Fanon and Black Lives Matter,” he said.

Bhagat Singh could have lived, Prof Juss added. Gandhi was negotiating with Viceroy Lord Irwin at the very moment the execution date was fixed. A word could have commuted the sentence. The word was never spoken. “My grandfather would say how the death of this young man could have been avoided if only Gandhi had taken a stand with Viceroy Lord Irwin, but he chose not to. And so this poor young lad was hanged at just 23,” recalled Prof Juss, whose childhood in a Punjab village without electricity was lit by his grandfather’s late-night accounts of the freedom struggle.

Pakistan’s memory for a hero

Nothing in this research surprised Prof Juss more than what he found beyond the archive–the depth and spontaneity of Pakistan’s feeling for Bhagat Singh.

Every year on March 23, crowds gather at Shadman Chowk in Lahore–singing, reciting poems passed down through generations, raising slogans. The Punjab government of Pakistan has passed a resolution to rename it Bhagat Singh Chowk. “The only thing that prevents Bhagat Singh’s complete rehabilitation as an icon of freedom in Pakistan are the forces of religious extremism,” said Prof Juss. “Otherwise, the people of that land recognise the greatness he embodies even today.” The religious right has fought the renaming through the Lahore High Court since 2013.

A stranger Prof Juss met outside Lahore, on learning of the research, took him home, fed him a meal and recited a poem about Bhagat Singh that his forefathers had passed down across generations. “How many families in India today can boast the same,” asked Prof Juss.

This reverence had struck him even before he reached Lahore. When he visited the Pakistan High Commission in London to apply for his research visa, the High Commissioner’s response was instantaneous: “Sardarji, Bhagat Singh ta sada hero hai. Fikar na karo–you will get the visa.” He issued a year’s visa on the spot.

The hold Bhagat Singh has on Pakistan’s popular imagination is also rooted in a political vacuum. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was once the country’s only mainstream champion of the poor and of religious minorities–until he yielded to religious pressure in 1974 and legislated the Ahmadis as apostates. That image was shattered and never repaired. “That void that he left behind has been filled by Bhagat Singh,” said Prof. Juss. “The common man identifies with him–with what the future of the subcontinent should have looked like after Independence–like no other.”

In India, the story gets more complex. When the Congress came to power, the Gandhi-Nehru narrative crowded out the agrarian revolutionaries who had lived and died on the land. “He is the only person who alone unites the people of India and Pakistan,” said Prof Juss. “He alone among the leaders of the Independence movement was prepared to die for his country. Not Gandhi, not Nehru, and certainly not the Muslim League.”

The world Bhagat Singh wrote about–rising authoritarianism, shrinking freedoms, the poor and marginalised crushed by systems that serve the powerful–is more recognisable today. “Bhagat Singh speaks about the plight of the oppressed and the downtrodden today just as he did between 1924 and 1931,” said Prof Juss. “Do Indians know their history,” asked Prof Juss. “Only if they know their history can they truly begin to own it.”

US President Donald Trump pulled back on his threats to launch devastating strikes on Iran late Tuesday, swerving to deescalate the war less than two hours before the deadline he set for Tehran to capitulate to a deal.

Trump said he was holding off on his threatened attacks on Iranian bridges and power plants, as the US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire that includes the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said it has accepted the ceasefire and that it would negotiate with the United States in Islamabad beginning Friday.

Neither Iran nor the United States said when the ceasefire would begin, and attacks took place in Israel, Iran and across the Gulf region early Wednesday.

Israel has also agreed to the ceasefire, according to a White House official who was not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Chinese officials encouraged Iran to find path to ceasefire with US: sources

April 8, 2026 8:20 am

Beijing: China, which is Tehran’s biggest trade partner, spoke with the Iranians to get them on board to look for a path toward a ceasefire in war with the US, sources said. Chinese officials were in touch with Iranian officials as the negotiations were evolving, two officials who were not authorised to comment publicly spoke on condition of anonymity. Beijing primarily had been working with intermediaries, including Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt, as it tried to use its influence, said one of the officials. (AP)

Pakistan invites US, Iran for talks in Islamabad

April 8, 2026 8:19 am

Islamabad: Pakistan on Wednesday invited the US and Iran for talks in Islamabad on Friday. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in a social media post announced that the US and Iran, along with their allies, have agreed to an immediate ceasefire amid the ongoing West Asia conflict. “With the greatest humility, I am pleased to announce that the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, along with their allies, have agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere, including Lebanon and elsewhere, effective immediately,” he said. Sharif said Pakistan has invited delegations from both countries to Islamabad on April 10 for face-to-face talks aimed at reaching a conclusive agreement “to settle all disputes”. (PTI)

Oil prices sink, US stock futures jump as US, Iran agree to 2-week ceasefire

April 8, 2026 8:19 am

New York: Oil prices plunged below USD 100 a barrel and Asia markets and US stock futures jumped after the US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire that includes the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. (AP)

Iran includes ‘acceptance of enrichment’ in Farsi version of its ceasefire plan

April 8, 2026 8:14 am

Tehran: Iran in the Farsi-language version of its 10-point ceasefire plan included the phrase “acceptance of enrichment” for its nuclear programme, something that was missing in English versions shared by Iranian diplomats to journalists. It wasn’t immediately clear why that term was missing. However, US President Donald Trump had said ending Iran’s nuclear programme entirely was a key point of the war. Trump, after Iran issued its 10-point plan, had described it as fraudulent, without elaborating. (AP)

Protesters in Iran express outrage at US, Israel after ceasefire agreement reached

April 8, 2026 7:57 am

Tehran: Pro-government demonstrators in the streets of Iran’s capital Wednesday morning after the ceasefire had been announced screamed: “Death to America, death to Israel, death to compromisers!” (AP)

Iraq’s Islamic Resistance says it is suspending operations for 2 weeks

April 8, 2026 7:50 am

Baghdad: The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed armed factions, said it would suspend its operations in Iraq and across the region for two weeks, according to a statement issued on Wednesday, in a move that follows announcements of a two-week suspension of hostilities between the United States and Iran. (Reuters)

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DOs & DON’Ts

1. Do not speak to the Medical Officer (MO) regarding referral to any specific Health Care Org (HCO)/Doctor.
2. If any MO at the Polyclinic refers you to a specific HCO/Doctor, report the matter to the OIC Polyclinic.
3. Beware of touts standing outside Polyclinics who may lure you to a particular HCO.
4. In case of admission to an HCO, keep track of details shared through geo-tagged photographs by the hospital.
5. Maintain a record of medicines prescribed and investigations carried out during the admission period.
6. Ensure that all bills are completed and settled before leaving the hospital.
7. Ensure that all treatment documents are handed over to the beneficiary at the time of discharge.
8. Seek referral to a competent doctor, not merely to a fancy-looking hospital.
9. If the beneficiary suspects any wrongdoing by the hospital, report the matter to the Regional Centre/OIC Polyclinic.
10. If any beneficiary is found involved in illegal activities in connivance with the hospital, strict action will be initiated against the individual.

HINDI

क्या करें और क्या न करें
(DO’s & DON’Ts)

किसी विशेष HCO/डॉक्टर के रेफरल के संबंध में MO से बात न करें।

यदि किसी पॉलीक्लिनिक के MO द्वारा आपको किसी विशेष HCO/डॉक्टर के पास भेजा जाता है, तो इसकी सूचना OIC पॉलीक्लिनिक को दें।

पॉलीक्लिनिक के बाहर खड़े दलालों (टाउट्स) से सावधान रहें, जो आपको किसी विशेष HCO की ओर आकर्षित करते हैं।

यदि किसी HCO में भर्ती होते हैं, तो अस्पताल द्वारा भेजी जा रही जियो-टैग की गई तस्वीरों के विवरण पर नज़र रखें।

भर्ती के दौरान दी जा रही दवाओं/जांचों का रिकॉर्ड रखें।

अस्पताल छोड़ने से पहले सुनिश्चित करें कि सभी बिल पूरे हो चुके हैं।

डिस्चार्ज के समय सुनिश्चित करें कि इलाज से संबंधित सभी दस्तावेज लाभार्थी को दे दिए गए हैं।

रेफरल एक अच्छे डॉक्टर के पास लें, न कि केवल दिखावटी (फैंसी) अस्पताल के पास।

यदि लाभार्थी को अस्पताल द्वारा कुछ गलत किए जाने का संदेह हो, तो मामले की सूचना क्षेत्रीय केंद्र/OIC पॉलीक्लिनिक को दें।

यदि कोई लाभार्थी अस्पताल के साथ मिलकर अवैध गतिविधियों में संलिप्त पाया जाता है, तो उसके विरुद्ध सख्त कार्रवाई की जाएगी।

PUNJABI

ਕੀ ਕਰਨਾ ਹੈ ਅਤੇ ਕੀ ਨਹੀਂ ਕਰਨਾ
(DO’s & DON’Ts)

ਕਿਸੇ ਖਾਸ HCO/ਡਾਕਟਰ ਦੇ ਰੈਫਰਲ ਬਾਰੇ MO ਨਾਲ ਗੱਲ ਨਾ ਕਰੋ।

ਜੇ ਕਿਸੇ ਪਾਲੀਕਲਿਨਿਕ ਦੇ MO ਵੱਲੋਂ ਤੁਹਾਨੂੰ ਕਿਸੇ ਖਾਸ HCO/ਡਾਕਟਰ ਕੋਲ ਭੇਜਿਆ ਜਾਂਦਾ ਹੈ, ਤਾਂ ਇਸ ਬਾਰੇ OIC ਪਾਲੀਕਲਿਨਿਕ ਨੂੰ ਸੂਚਿਤ ਕਰੋ।

ਪਾਲੀਕਲਿਨਿਕ ਦੇ ਬਾਹਰ ਖੜ੍ਹੇ ਦਲਾਲਾਂ (ਟਾਊਟਸ) ਤੋਂ ਸਾਵਧਾਨ ਰਹੋ ਜੋ ਤੁਹਾਨੂੰ ਕਿਸੇ ਖਾਸ HCO ਵੱਲ ਖਿੱਚਦੇ ਹਨ।

ਜੇ ਤੁਸੀਂ ਕਿਸੇ HCO ਵਿੱਚ ਦਾਖਲ ਹੁੰਦੇ ਹੋ, ਤਾਂ ਹਸਪਤਾਲ ਵੱਲੋਂ ਭੇਜੀਆਂ ਜਾ ਰਹੀਆਂ ਜਿਓ-ਟੈਗ ਕੀਤੀਆਂ ਤਸਵੀਰਾਂ ਦੇ ਵੇਰਵਿਆਂ ‘ਤੇ ਨਜ਼ਰ ਰੱਖੋ।

ਦਾਖਲੇ ਦੌਰਾਨ ਦਿੱਤੀਆਂ ਜਾ ਰਹੀਆਂ ਦਵਾਈਆਂ/ਜਾਂਚਾਂ ਦਾ ਰਿਕਾਰਡ ਰੱਖੋ।

ਹਸਪਤਾਲ ਛੱਡਣ ਤੋਂ ਪਹਿਲਾਂ ਯਕੀਨੀ ਬਣਾਓ ਕਿ ਸਾਰੇ ਬਿੱਲ ਪੂਰੇ ਹੋ ਚੁੱਕੇ ਹਨ।

ਡਿਸਚਾਰਜ ਸਮੇਂ ਯਕੀਨੀ ਬਣਾਓ ਕਿ ਇਲਾਜ ਨਾਲ ਸੰਬੰਧਿਤ ਸਾਰੇ ਦਸਤਾਵੇਜ਼ ਲਾਭਪਾਤਰੀ ਨੂੰ ਦੇ ਦਿੱਤੇ ਗਏ ਹਨ।

ਰੈਫਰਲ ਕਿਸੇ ਚੰਗੇ ਡਾਕਟਰ ਕੋਲ ਲਵੋ, ਨਾ ਕਿ ਸਿਰਫ਼ ਦਿਖਾਵਟੀ (ਫੈਂਸੀ) ਹਸਪਤਾਲ ਵਿੱਚ।

ਜੇ ਲਾਭਪਾਤਰੀ ਨੂੰ ਲੱਗੇ ਕਿ ਹਸਪਤਾਲ ਵੱਲੋਂ ਕੁਝ ਗਲਤ ਕੀਤਾ ਜਾ ਰਿਹਾ ਹੈ, ਤਾਂ ਇਸ ਦੀ ਸੂਚਨਾ ਰੀਜਨਲ ਸੈਂਟਰ/OIC ਪਾਲੀਕਲਿਨਿਕ ਨੂੰ ਦਿਓ।

ਜੇ ਕੋਈ ਲਾਭਪਾਤਰੀ ਹਸਪਤਾਲ ਨਾਲ ਮਿਲੀਭੁਗਤ ਕਰਕੇ ਗੈਰਕਾਨੂੰਨੀ ਗਤੀਵਿਧੀਆਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਸ਼ਾਮਲ ਪਾਇਆ ਜਾਂਦਾ ਹੈ, ਤਾਂ ਉਸ ਖ਼ਿਲਾਫ਼ ਸਖ਼ਤ ਕਾਰਵਾਈ ਕੀਤੀ ਜਾਵੇਗੀ।

Dear ECHS Beneficiaries,
It has been observed that certain irregular practices are being carried out by some empanelled hospitals and intermediaries, leading to misuse of ECHS facilities.
All beneficiaries are advised to remain vigilant and not fall prey to any inducements, misleading advice, or pressure from hospitals/touts for unnecessary admissions, procedures, or investigations.
You are requested to: • Avail treatment strictly as per medical advice and proper referral

• Avoid sharing ECHS details with unauthorised persons
• Report any suspicious activity, overcharging, or coercion by hospitals/agents to the Polyclinic immediately
  It is also emphasised that such malpractices often occur with the active or passive involvement of beneficiaries, knowingly or unknowingly. Your cooperation is therefore essential in ensuring transparency and protecting the integrity of the ECHS system.
  Authorities are taking strict action against errant hospitals and intermediaries. Strict disciplinary action will also be initiated against any beneficiary found colluding with empanelled hospitals or agents in such malpractices.
  All beneficiaries are encouraged to come forward and assist by reporting any such instances.
  Let us work together to safeguard the interests of all ECHS members.
  Regards,
  OIC
  ECHS Polyclinic Chandigarh

प्रिय ECHS लाभार्थियों,
यह देखा गया है कि कुछ पैनल में शामिल अस्पतालों और बीच के एजेंटों द्वारा गलत तरीके अपनाए जा रहे हैं, जिससे ECHS सुविधाओं का दुरुपयोग हो रहा है।
सभी लाभार्थियों से अनुरोध है कि सतर्क रहें और किसी भी लालच, गलत सलाह या अस्पतालों/एजेंटों के दबाव में आकर बिना जरूरत भर्ती, जांच या इलाज न करवाएं।
आपसे अनुरोध है कि:

• इलाज हमेशा डॉक्टर की सही सलाह और उचित रेफरल के अनुसार ही लें
• अपनी ECHS जानकारी किसी अनजान या अनधिकृत व्यक्ति से साझा न करें
• किसी भी संदिग्ध गतिविधि, ज्यादा पैसे लेने या दबाव बनाने की शिकायत तुरंत पॉलीक्लिनिक में करें
  यह भी ध्यान देने योग्य है कि ऐसे गलत काम कई बार लाभार्थियों की जानकारी या अनजाने में उनकी भागीदारी से भी होते हैं। इसलिए आपकी जिम्मेदारी बहुत महत्वपूर्ण है ताकि व्यवस्था पारदर्शी बनी रहे।
  अधिकारियों द्वारा ऐसे अस्पतालों और एजेंटों के खिलाफ सख्त कार्रवाई की जा रही है। यदि कोई लाभार्थी भी इन गलत कामों में शामिल पाया जाता है, तो उसके खिलाफ भी सख्त कार्रवाई की जाएगी।
  सभी लाभार्थियों से अनुरोध है कि आगे आएं और ऐसी घटनाओं की जानकारी दें।
  आइए, हम सब मिलकर ECHS के हितों की रक्षा करें।
  सादर,
  OIC
  ECHS पॉलीक्लिनिक, चंडीगढ़

Airstrikes in southwest Iran have killed at least three people and wounded others, according to Iranian state media.

The attack took place in the same area where a missing American crew member is believed to be.

Meanwhile, the commander of the joint military command, Gen Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi, said his country will target all infrastructure used by the US military in the region, as well as Israel’s infrastructure, if aggression against Iran escalates.

His comments on Saturday evening, carried by state media, came a few hours after Trump warned Tehran to open the Strait of Hormuz or face devastating consequences.

“The doors of hell will be opened to you” if Iran’s infrastructure is attacked,  Aliabadi said in response to Trump’s renewed threat, state media reported.

The war began with joint US-Israel strikes on Feb 28 and has killed thousands, shaken global markets, cut off key shipping routes and spiked fuel prices. Both sides have threatened, and hit, civilian targets, bringing warnings of possible war crimes. (Agencies)

‘Most daring operation in US history’: Trump announces rescue of US pilot missing in Iran

April 5, 2026 10:05 am

US President Donald Trump on Sunday announced the rescue of a

missing American pilot, describing it as “one of the most daring search and rescue operations in US history”, amid escalating tensions with Iran.

Iran war starts pinching US; gas prices, transport costs surge

April 5, 2026 9:13 am

The war against Iran has started to impact Americans, with Amazon announcing a fuel surcharge for its e-commerce deliveries and some airlines hiking fees for checked-in baggage to offset higher fuel costs.

5 varsity professors, 60 students killed since war started: Iranian official

April 5, 2026 8:49 am

Iran’s Minister of Science, Research and Technology Hossein Simaei Sarraf spoke to reporters Saturday while checking the aftermath of strike on a university research centre in southern Tehran.

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Chief of Defence Staff, General Anil Chauhan, on Saturday visited strategically important areas under Chinar Corps in Srinagar.

An official statement said that during the visit, the CDS reviewed the security landscape and operational posture along the Line of Control (LoC) in north Kashmir and commended the formation’s operational preparedness, doctrinal coherence and professionalism. At Baramulla, he was briefed on future force application and technology infusion.

Addressing officers of the Chinar Corps, he highlighted that the character of warfare is undergoing a profound transformation, necessitating a shift from a domain-centric approach to multi-domain operations (MDO), supported by a robust and integrated architecture.

He underscored the importance of jointness, stressing that seamless integration across land, air, maritime, cyber, space and cognitive domains is essential for achieving decisive outcomes. He called for accelerated joint training for future warfare, harmonisation of doctrines and development of interoperable command and control structures to enable synchronised effects across domains.

The CDS emphasised the need for a clear roadmap to counter emerging challenges—one that promotes technological adaptation, cognitive resilience and collective preparedness through integrated efforts. He reiterated that preparedness for future threats must be anchored in foresight, innovation, a unified warfighting philosophy and a whole-of-nation approach.

He also highlighted the importance of operational readiness and resilience in the face of evolving security challenges. He exhorted all ranks to maintain operational excellence, embrace jointness as a way of life and remain prepared to dominate the full spectrum of future conflicts.

The average price of petrol in the US has increased to USD 4.09 a gallon on Friday, up more than one dollar from just before the war and the highest level since August 2022

The war against Iran has started to impact Americans, with Amazon announcing a fuel surcharge for its e-commerce deliveries and some airlines hiking fees for checked-in baggage to offset higher fuel costs.

The average price of petrol in the US has increased to USD 4.09 a gallon on Friday, up more than one dollar from just before the war and the highest level since August 2022.

The cost of diesel has risen sharply from USD 3.64 per gallon a year ago to USD 5.53 per gallon on Friday, according to data maintained by the American Automobile Association (AAA). Diesel is widely used in farming, construction and transportation, besides other industries.

E-commerce giant Amazon also said that, beginning April 17, it plans to add a 3.5 per cent fuel surcharge on third-party sellers.

The US Postal Service on Wednesday said it is seeking to impose a temporary 8 per cent fuel surcharge for package and express mail deliveries to deal with rising transportation costs.

If approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission, the surcharge would take effect on April 26 and remain in place until January 17, 2027, the Postal Service said in a notice on its website.

If the war against Iran stretches longer, it will also lead to supply chain disruptions in the US.

“I don’t think the US will avoid it. These are global markets,” Rachel Ziemba, a New York-based analyst who advises corporations on geopolitical risk, was quoted by The Washington Post as saying.

“Experts, even a week ago, were worried. Now they are more worried,” she said.

“If transportation costs start rising, it’s going to bleed through in other prices,” Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, was quoted as saying by CBS.

“So I think it’s in the near term, but not immediate, that you would start to see that weighing down of the consumer – they would just get sticker shock. People were already highly concerned about affordability and the cost of living, and this would just be piling onto it,” he said.

Blocking the Hormuz Strait has already cost the global economy hundreds of millions of barrels of oil, with the effects felt on a rolling basis corresponding to travel time from the Persian Gulf, The Washington Post reported, quoting from a recent client note from JPMorgan’s commodities specialists.

Asia was first to feel the loss of Gulf oil shipments, where governments have ordered rationing and conservation measures. Europe is likely to suffer physical shortages by mid-April as the last vessels loaded with oil before the war arrive at continental ports.

Since it takes 35 to 45 days to reach US ports from the Strait, the United States will be the last market to suffer.

Prices will rise, but shortages of refined products starting in late April or May will probably be confined to California, which is physically isolated from the nation’s fuel supply system, the JPMorgan report said.

The airline says 12 of the 32 flights will be non-scheduled services to and from the UAE, subject to slot availability and prevailing operational conditions

Air India Group will operate 32 scheduled and non-scheduled flights to and from West Asia on Sunday, marking a slight scale-down in operations, with fewer ad hoc services planned for the United Arab Emirates compared to previous days.

The airline said 12 of the 32 flights will be non-scheduled services to and from the UAE, subject to slot availability and prevailing operational conditions. These flights are being operated with approvals from Indian authorities and UAE regulators.

Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah will continue to be served through ad hoc operations. Air India will operate a Delhi-Dubai service, while Air India Express will connect Mangalore to Dubai. Abu Dhabi will see Air India Express flights from Delhi and Kochi, while Sharjah will be linked to Amritsar and Kannur.

No flights are planned for Ras Al Khaimah and Al Ain.

In Oman, scheduled operations will continue on the Muscat route, with Air India Express running services from Delhi, Kannur, Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram. Salalah remains suspended.

Saudi Arabia will see partial continuity, with scheduled flights to Jeddah operated by Air India from Delhi and Mumbai, and by Air India Express from Bengaluru, Kozhikode and Mangalore. Riyadh will have a scheduled Air India service from Delhi, while Dammam remains without operations.

Flights to Bahrain, Doha, Kuwait and Tel Aviv continue to remain suspended.

Air India said its long-haul flights to North America, Europe and Australia are operating as per schedule, with disruptions confined to West Asia routes.

Passengers affected by cancellations have been offered free rebooking or full refunds. Air India Express has also enabled UAE-bound passengers to shift to alternative flights within its network without additional charges.

The airline said it is proactively reaching out to affected passengers through registered mobile numbers to provide rebooking options, and advised travellers to ensure their contact details are updated to receive timely notifications.

Meanwhile, IndiGo said that on Sunday, they are operating select flights to/from the Middle East. “Flight schedules are being reviewed on an ongoing basis in coordination with the relevant authorities,” said the airline.