PTI

Chandigarh, January 13

Opposition Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab on Friday strongly opposed the reported move of induction of helmets for Sikh soldiers in the Army.

Senior Congress leader and former Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said that Sikhs bravely fought the 1962, 1965, 1971 wars and the Kargil battle, but no helmet issue arose then.

“We strongly condemn the move of induction of helmets for Sikh soldiers. A Sikh will never remove his turban for a helmet. Government should immediately withdraw its decision and the Prime Minister should apologise,” Randhawa told reporters here.

Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to personally intervene against implementation of the reported move to make helmets mandatory for Sikhs in the country’s armed forces.

Describing the move as “provocative and insensitive in the extreme”, Badal, in a statement, here said that it was not just unprecedented in history but also defied all logic as Sikh soldiers had always remained in the forefront of the country’s defence without ever feeling the need for such helmets in the past.

“If details emerging from various sources including newspaper reports are indeed true, then we are surprised that the Government has shown such callous disregard for the time honoured and established Sikh tenets, norms and practices on a matter of such critical emotional and religious sensitivity. It concerns ‘Sikh Maryada’ which no one has a right to tinker or trifle with,” said Badal in a letter to the Prime Minister.

He, however, hoped that the Prime Minister would look into the matter and order that necessary action be taken to stop any proposal in this regard.

“Not even the British had forced such a decision on the Sikh soldiers. Sikhs are fiercely patriotic people and have led from the front in 1948, 1962, 1965 and 1971 wars as also in all other military operations, including Kargil.

“Why this sudden development when no Sikh had ever felt the need for such a protection?” asked Badal, adding that he still hoped that the reports in this regard are not true.

In his letter to the Prime Minister, Badal also drew Modi’s attention to the serious concern expressed by Jathedar of Akal Takhat Harpreet Singh over the reported move of the Ministry of Defence in this regard.

According to a statement by Shiromani Akali Dal, Badal was referring to reports in a section of the press which said that the ministry of Defence had already placed orders for bulk purchase of these so-called “specially designed helmets” for the Sikh soldiers.

He said that the Sikh tenets forbade the wearing of any covering material over their turbans and in all combat operations, including the two World Wars, the Sikhs have neither asked for nor been forced to wear any such headgear over their turbans.” Akal Takht Jathedar, Giani Harpreet Singh had also criticised the reported move, saying that it is an attack on the identity of Sikhs.

Tribune News Service

Ravi Dhaliwal

Gurdaspur, January 13

Hundreds of farmers having their agriculture land across the barbed fencing along the International Border (IB) are likely to benefit in a big way if the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) goes ahead with its “proposed decision” to shift the fencing to within 200 metres of the zero line.

A proposal to this effect has been prepared by the BSF and would be soon forwarded to the MHA.

Thousands of acres of highly fertile land, which is sandwiched between the fencing and the zero line, will be freed from what farmers’ term /

as “encumbrances”.

“Once the notification is issued, the land acquisition process which is to be initiated by the Punjab Government will commence. The construction will be done by the CPWD,” said Gurdaspur Sector DIG Prabhakar Joshi.

At present, farmers have to go through the rigmarole of obtaining permits from the BSF, which in itself is a “tedious process”. Also, they cannot till their land during the night. To complicate matters, the BSF does not give them permission to sow sugarcane crop in this cane-rich area of Gurdaspur. The rates of land would also see an increase.

Jagdeep Singh Teja, a farmer whose land is near Thakurpur village, a stone’s throw away from the fencing, “We have been waiting for this to happen for the past several decades. We are stranded in no-man’s land. We will not require the mandatory permissions from the BSF to visit our own fields,” he said.

Officers said they need not worry about Pakistan seeing this as a provocative act as they would not be going beyond the zero line.

India had fenced 461-km long Punjab’s border with Pakistan from 1988 to 1993. This was done to stop militants and illegal immigrants from sneaking into Indian territory.

Sources said the new fencing may be in place by the middle of this year.

PTI

Srinagar, January 13

Authorities on Friday issued an avalanche warning for 10 districts which have witnessed moderate to heavy snowfall over the past 48 hours. The State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) issued a ‘high danger’ avalanche warning for Bandipora and Kupwara districts of North Kashmir and a ‘medium danger’ warning for Baramulla and Ganderbal districts.

Officials said avalanches with low danger level are likely to occur in Anantnag, Doda, Kishtwar, Kulgam, Poonch and Ramban. People living in these areas are advised to take precautions and avoid avalanche-prone areas, the officials said. On Thursday, two labourers from Kishtwar had died when an avalanche hit a construction site in Sonmarg of Ganderbal district.

The Indian force, if sent in early 1950, would have accomplished a fait accompli. Reports available suggest that Tibetans, including the young Dalai Lama, would have welcomed an Indian force to deter the Chinese invasion. It was militarily feasible to occupy Tibet by employing two divisions supported by air. The US assistance would have been readily available. But given Nehru’s love for China, besides military fatigue, the invasion did not take off.

Maj Gen Ashok K Mehta (retd)

Military Commentator

On January 12, briefing the media before Army Day, Gen Manoj Pande, the Army Chief, described the situation on the northern borders as ‘stable but unpredictable.’ Things could have been different.

Of the 18 books by former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, India At Risk: Mistakes, Misconceptions and Misadventures of Security Policy is today the most relevant. He remarks that India is in a strategic straitjacket, being confined by four lines: the LoC, the LAC, the Durand Line and the McMahon Line.

There is a reference to a paper in the book relating to external defence, called India’s Mongol Frontier. In the paper, Lt Gen Francis Tuker, in 1946, as the Eastern Army Commander, highlights that India’s vital area is the Tibetan Plateau, adding that China, not Russia, was the main threat to British India. He says that as British power withdraws from India, Tibet will lean to China, and India, rather than witness Chinese occupation of Tibet, should not just prevent it but also be prepared to occupy the Tibetan Plateau to negate a Chinese invasion. Routes for an Indian expeditionary force, moving to Lhasa through Sikkim and Diwangiri, are mentioned. He also recommends that India should maintain good relations with Nepal, especially with its people.

No historical records appear to exist as to why this pre-emptive operation was not undertaken, given that detailed records were available of the 1903-04 Francis Younghusband expedition which fought its way to Gyantgse, reached Lhasa and ultimately established a consulate

The Anglo-Tibet Convention of Lhasa, later reinforced by the Simla Agreement (1914), granted special rights to British India in Tibet. These included trading marts in Yatung, Gyangtse and Garthok, temporary ceding of the Chumbi valley and a trade commissioner in Lhasa. These trading posts had military and communication detachments which were in place till 1954 and were unilaterally withdrawn due to Nehru’s fatal attraction to China and the Panchsheel Agreement.

Military records show that two rifle companies of 8 Gorkha Rifles (in the Indian Army today) and one company of the Royal Fusilliers were the infantry component of the Younghusband force. Lt John Grant and Havaldar Kabir Pun won the Victoria Cross and the Indian Order of Merit First Class, the highest award for the non-British at the time. Marwari traders in Gangtok even today recall their forebears doing a thriving business in Tibet through the Nathu La and Jelep La Passes.

Surprisingly, in several books on China by Indian authors, this missed opportunity is not considered — in fact, hardly, if at all, mentioned. It would have changed the face of the Indian subcontinent and India’s locus standi in the region

The moot question is: was the occupation of Tibet feasible to prevent the Chinese invasion in 1950? No one has seriously investigated this idea, though Jaswant Singh mentions in India At Risk that in January 1961, the then Army Chief Gen KS Thimayya, when asked about the practicality of the Tibet operation, said: “I cannot as a soldier imagine India taking on China in open conflict on its own as war will be beyond the capacity of our forces. China’s present strength in manpower, equipment and aircraft exceeds our resources.” Thimayya, before he became Army Chief in 1957, presumably advised against a Tibet adventure. His apprehension was echoed by the Director General, Military Operations, Brig DK Palit.

Consider the military situation after the Partition: India’s share of military assets was around 3,00,000 troops from the 4,00,000-strong undivided British Indian Army. New raisings were in the pipeline. Operations in J&K had sucked in roughly 1,30,000 (all ranks) and a ceasefire was announced on December 31, 1948. Home Minister Sardar Patel’s two White Papers — one in July 1948 on the McMahon Line and another in February 1950 — resulted in Maj Bob Khathing establishing Indian Administration in NEFA and evicting Tibetan officials from Tawang in 1951. It seems that even the redoubtable Patel did not press for the pre-emptive military expedition to occupy Tibet.

The Indian force, if sent in early 1950, would have accomplished a fait accompli. Reports available suggest that Tibetans, including the young Dalai Lama, would have welcomed an Indian force to deter the Chinese invasion. Given Nehru’s love for China, besides military fatigue, the invasion did not take off

Another reason for ignoring the Tuker option is mentioned in Gen Monty Palit’s War in the High Himalayas. Palit states that there was probably an agreement between India and China. The Indian intervention in 1950 to fly out King Tribhuvan happened around the same time (October 1950) as China took Tibet. India succeeded in toppling the Rana autocracy to restore monarchy through the Delhi Agreement of 1951 and it subsequently introduced democracy in Nepal. The India-China agreement was perhaps a Nepal-Tibet quid pro quo.

Returning to Tibet, in hindsight, it was militarily feasible to occupy Tibet in early 1950 by employing two divisions supported by air. The US assistance would have been readily available. The pre-emptive operation may have resolved the unsettled borders in Ladakh and the McMahon Line. Tibet would have remained the buffer between India and China. After World War II and the Kashmir operations, the Army was indeed stressed but a Tibet expedition was not undoable, though it required political will and risk-taking.

We are paying for that mistake hands down. Equally, had we accepted Chinese Premier Chou Enlai’s offer in the 1950s of a land swap — Aksai Chin for the McMahon Line, veritably the status quo then — we might have prevented the high cost of a two-front dilemma.

Today, India holds a subordinate status on the border, but some relief may accrue from restoring deterrence through horizontal escalation: another Snow Leopard. It is the only way to break the stalemate in military and political dialogue and also reviving the Special Representative-level talks on the border issue. The border will be volatile and escalation-prone.

PTI

Srinagar, January 13

Most parts of Kashmir received fresh snow and rain on Friday leading to the closure of the Srinagar-Jammu national highway and impacting the flight operations to and from the Valley, officials said here.

While the higher reaches of Jammu and Kashmir experienced moderate to heavy snow, many areas in the plains received light to moderate snow, they said.

The fresh snow started early in the morning and continued till the reports last came in, they said.

The famous ski resort of Gulmarg, tourist resorts of Pahalgam and Sonamarg and many other places experienced fresh snow, they said.https://92544af17cb90d881b826f7cb06dd04a.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-40/html/container.html

The upper reaches of Srinagar also received snow, while the plain areas were lashed by rain.

The inclement weather has resulted in the closure of the Srinagar-Jammu national highway, the officials said.

The highway was closed for traffic due to landslides in Mehar area of Ramban district and slippery conditions of the road, they said.

The officials said road clearance operations are going on but continuous snow and rain are making the job difficult.

The weather conditions also affected the air traffic at the Srinagar airport here, they said.

While flight operations took place in the morning, the operations were affected after 9am. Several flights had been delayed due to low visibility, the officials said.

The operations would resume after the visibility improved, they added. 

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 12

Punjab reiterated its claim over its river waters, Chandigarh as its capital and on Panjab University during the 20th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Northern Zonal Council (NZC) held here today.

The state’s claim in the wake of the longstanding dispute over the construction of the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal was raised by Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Janjua in the presence of the Adviser to the Chandigarh Administration, Chief Secretaries of Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi, besides Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Officers of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs were also present at the meeting.

In his inaugural speech, Janjua also raised the demand for setting up of a tribunal to assess the situation with regard to the river waters, increasing international flights from the Mohali airport and starting the UDAN scheme from airports in the state.

He also called for strengthening the international borders, uniform policy for purchasing land and stemming the loss to Punjab from the Hansi-Butana canal and the Ghaggar by presenting facts and figures.

The Chief Secretary batted for cooperative federalism and said such meetings were the right platform for bringing to the fore inter-state matters and debate for their solutions.

He made it clear that as per the current state of river waters, Punjab was facing the shortage of water hence it didn’t have extra water to spare for other states.

“These are emotional issues for Punjab and being the parent state, it has full right on its capital which has been denied to it all along,” said the Chief Secretary, adding that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had also pressed for the state’s claims on these issues.

In keeping with the principles of one nation, one family, there must be a uniform policy concerning buying and selling of land in all states. It was imperative for Punjab that these issues should be sorted out, said he.

During the agenda-wise discussions, Principal Secretary, Water Resources, Krishan Kumar said the level of water, which was available with Punjab at the time of river waters agreements, had come down drastically and the state was facing the paucity of this precious resource.

Other demands raised by chief secy

• Increasing international flights from the Mohali airport
• UDAN scheme from airports in the state
• Uniform policy for buying and selling of land in states

Tribune News Service

Jammu, January 13

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said investigation of Rajouri terror incident has been handed over to the National Investigative Agency. A team of NIA along with J-K police will investigate the incident jointly.

Shah said during a press conference in Jammu that he talked to the kin of victims of Rajouri attack after reaching Jammu as he was not able to visit Dhangri village due to bad weather.

Seven civilians were killed in twin terror attack on January 1 and 2 at Dhangri village in Rajouri.

Shah held a security review meeting at Raj Bhawan in Jammu where officials of J-K police, BSF, Army, CRPF among others were present.

“Security grid especially of Jammu region will be strengthened to stop such incidents in coming days” said Shah.

He informed that all terror incident that took place in Jammu during past one year will be investigated by the NIA.

New Delhi, January 13

A woman academic from Punjab has accused staff of the Pakistan High Commission in the visa section in Delhi of indecent behaviour and sexual harassment. 

She had applied for a visa to travel to Pakistan and had booked an appointment with the Pakistan High Commission online.

The professor alleged that an employee there asked her personal questions, which made her uncomfortable. She alleged, “The employee asked me, ‘Why am I not married? How do I live without marriage? What do I do for my sexual desires?'” 

“It was also asked whether I supported Khalistan. Or could I write on Kashmir issues?” she told ANI.

She said she was uncomfortable with the questions and tried to change the topic.

“I continued to be polite and tolerated him as I wanted the visa. Around 45 minutes of this torture continued,” she said.

According to a WhatsApp chat screenshot which the victim has sent to ANI, it is alleged that the Pakistan diplomat asked her to write against the Government of India and offered her handsome remuneration. She said she refused to do so.

The victim has written to the Ministry of External Affairs and authorities concerned about the harassment and sought justice.

“I wish to inform you about the indecent and objectionable behaviour of officials of the High Commission of Pakistan, New Delhi, during my visit for obtaining a visa and also a month later over the phone and chat on my personal number,” the academic told ANI.

Describing her experience to ANI over the phone, she said, “On March 15, 2022, I had a visa appointment at the High Commission which I had booked online over the website. I reached there around 9.45 am and entered the complex around 10am. I was asked to wait for an hour and a half in the waiting lounge. I was asked a few general questions about my visit and then later asked to go to a room where I waited along with some officials for a few minutes before the visa officer arrived. He asked me the purpose of my visit. I explained that I wished to visit Lahore, photograph the monuments and write on them and then visit Abbottabad University for a lecture at the university. In less than two minutes he told me that the visa cannot be granted.

During chats for visa approval, the Pakistan High Commission officials asked her to come for dinner and stay with them, she claimed.

She said she wanted punishment for the officials.

The Pakistan High Commission said it is looking into the allegations.

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THE EXPRESS INDIA NEWS : NEWSPAPER

LEST WE FORGET: GUTS AND GLORY ON FOREIGN SOILS – IX

Ishar Singh, The hero of Waziristan

(Maj Gen Harvijay Singh, SM)

1921: Between the Wars

Sardar Bahadur Captain Ishar Singh Victoria Cross

In 1921, Ishar Singh was a Sepoy in the 28^th Punjabis, Indian Army.

During the First World War, the Battalion fought on the Tigris Front, as the British made desperate efforts to relieve their besieged garrison at Kut al Amara. In 1917, the regiment took part in the Third Battle of Sannaiyat, the Capture of Baghdad, and the actions at Istabulat and Tekrit. In 1918, the 28^th Punjabis participated in the Palestine Campaign. During the war, the regiment suffered a total of 1423 casualties. It raised a second battalion in 1918, which was disbanded after the war.

In 1921, Sepoy Ishar Singh of the 28^th Punjabis was awarded the Victoria Cross for exceptional valour during the Waziristan Campaign.

The Waziristan Revolt of 1919-1920 was sparked by the Afghan invasion of British India in 1919. Though the Waziri tribesmen fought hard. This conflict the first time that air power was used in the Sub Continent.

Near Haidari Kach, Waziristan, Sepoy Ishar Singh was No. l of a Lewis Gun-Section when the convoy protection troops were attacked.

Ishar Singh received a serious gunshot wound in the chest, and fell next to his Lewis gun. The British officer, Indian officer, and all the Havildars of his company were either killed or wounded, and his Lewis gun was seized by the enemy.

Calling up two other men he got up, charged the enemy, and recovered the Lewis gun. Despite bleeding profusely, he again got the gun into action and killed many of the enemy breaking their attack.

Ordered to go back and have his wound dressed, he went to the medical officer. There he instead started helping the other wounded and carried water to them, making many trips to the nearby river and back. It was only after three hours that he finally submitted to be evacuated, being then too weak from loss of blood to object.

His bravery was recognised with the award of the Victoria Cross.

During World War II, the 28^th Punjabis (redesignated as the 4^th Battalion, the 15^th Punjab Regiment) fought in the Burma Campaign with great distinction, suffered 921 casualties and was awarded numerous gallantry awards including two Victoria Crosses to Lieutenant Karamjeet Singh Judge and Naik Gian Singh. In 1947, the Battalion was allocated to the Pakistan Army.

Indian Armed Forces stand tall among their global peers because of their rich battle-hardened heritage, motivation and tough training.

………………Contd, because these stories must be told