With no concrete proposal to settle border disputes, India and China military-level talks are going to convene their 12th meet shortly to defuse tension at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Ladakh region. Both sides have deployed one lakh troops each after the previous year’s standoff at Galwan valley, where both sides lost soldiers in face to face ruffian tussle. Favouring dialogue at the military and diplomatic level, India always maintained that disengagement and de-escalation have to be complete from all face-off sites to ensure long-lasting peace and tranquillity at the LAC. However, China is not willing to do so and has so far not given any commitment to hasten the process of withdrawing its troops from the three points namely Hot Springs, Gogra and Depsang valley.
Though in the initial day’s China had withdrawn forces after the agreement with India, it was later witnessed that the accumulation of men and machines has happened again in the disputed areas. There is no thinning out of troops by China since the withdrawal from both the armies from southern and northern banks of the Pangong Tso(lake) in late February, said top Indian Defence experts.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has adopted delaying tactics by insisting that local commanders of the rank of Brigadiers or Colonels from both sides should hold talks regarding Hot Springs and Gogra, say Indian Defence experts.
The Pangong lake was the first place where the stand-offs began in April-May 2020 when an Indian patrol was stopped by the Chinese. It led to an exchange of blows and some soldiers from both sides were injured. Trouble soon erupted at many other places at the 1,700 km long LAC in Ladakh including Hot Springs and Gogra. The Galwan valley in the Eastern Ladakh region witnessed a bloody brawl on June 15 last year in which 20 Indian personnel including the commanding officer were killed. At least 35 to 40 Chinese soldiers were also killed but Beijing is yet to make the casualty figures public.
In an effort to reduce tension at the LAC, the two countries have so far held 11 rounds of Corps Commander level talks since May last year. The last round was held on April 9. While the two commanders from both sides agreed in the last round to continue the process of parleys, there was no breakthrough in having a road map for disengaging troops from the remaining friction points including Chang Chemmo–KongKa La area which lies between Galwan and Pangong Tso. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has adopted delaying tactics by insisting that local commanders of the rank of Brigadiers or Colonels from both sides should hold talks regarding Hot Springs and Gogra, say Indian Defence experts.
A few days back, according to the news agency PTI, Russian President Vladimir Putin took a neutral stand saying both India and China are capable of settling their issues in an amicable way. It must be remembered that Putin has already supplied S-400 missiles to China in 2016 and clinched an agreement worth more than Rs.45,000 crore with India to supply the same missiles, which is having Chinese software. Russia after taking 25% of the deal value, extended the supply to India starting from December 2021 in five-year instalments. PGurus have reported the treachery by Russians in this regard by delaying supply after taking money from India and helpless and failed Indian strategy.

Washington’s support to sustain disbursement of the $6 billion IMF loan is crucial for Pakistan. Pakistan has been on the grey list of the FATF since June 2018 and the deadline for the final decision has been extended multiple times due to the Covid crisis. The review meetings of the FATF are scheduled for the second week of June and Pakistan is keen to exit the grey list. Pakistan is hopeful that resetting bilateral ties with the US will ease the situation.

SURVIVAL BID: Strategic motives compel Pakistan to maintain ties with the US. Reuters

Shalini Chawla

Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Air Power Studies

There has been ample speculation of late about Pentagon exploring Pakistan as an option for its air bases to prevent Afghanistan to be used as a base for anti-US terrorism and ensure that Afghanistan doesn’t slide into a civil war after US troop withdrawal (September 11, 2021). Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who often manages to attract limelight for his provocative remarks, said that “Pakistan will not be providing military bases to the US for counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan”. The Afghan Taliban, on the other hand, warned the Afghan neighbours to not allow the US to operate bases on their territory and said, “We urge neighbouring countries not to allow anyone to do so… If such a step is taken again, it will be a great historic mistake and disgrace” and the Taliban would “not remain silent in the face of such heinous and provocative acts”. Pakistan has denied offering air bases to the US (till now), while Pakistan’s foreign office confirmed that the essential framework of cooperation in terms of Air Lines of Communication (ALOC) and Ground Lines of Communication (GLOC) signed with the US in 2001, for air and ground support to the US will remain.

Undoubtedly, Pakistan has compelling strategic motives to improve its strained ties with Washington and is hopeful of doing so under the Biden administration. Moeed Yusuf, Pakistan’s newly appointed National Security Adviser, who has spent a significant amount of time in US think tanks and security policy circles and has earned the confidence of the country’s establishment in the last few months, has the revival of Pak-US ties at the top of his agenda. Imran Khan, after coming to power in 2018, has repeatedly regretted Pakistan’s decision to be a US frontline state in the war on terror. Domestically, there has been tremendous anger on Pakistan fighting America’s war. On the other hand, during the last two decades, Pakistan’s relationship with China has grown significantly and Pakistan assuredly prizes Beijing’s support on crucial fronts: military build-up, $60 billion economic investment, and above all, China’s diplomatic assistance in supporting Pakistan’s Kashmir agenda against India. There have been a few reports of stressful delays in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects and China’s recent refusal to restructure $3 billion in liabilities, but strategically, China and Pakistan remain mutually committed. Despite its deep strategic alliance with China, domestic disapproval, and the Afghan Taliban’s ‘gentle warning’ against providing any military support to the US, the Pakistan military might be willing to go the extra mile to revive its strategic partnership with America owing to the following factors.

Pakistan’s economic crisis needs the International Monetary Fund (IMF) support despite Imran Khan rejoicing the provisional estimates of a 3.94 per cent GDP growth rate during the current fiscal year 2021. Imran Khan’s government has been facing serious economics challenges with a low growth rate, inflated debt and high inflation. In 2019, Pakistan entered a $6 billion loan agreement with the IMF which came with tough conditionalities. The IMF has been emphasising implementing the circular debt management plan and remains insistent on tax and energy reforms. Washington’s support to sustain disbursement of the $6 billion loan is crucial for Pakistan. Pakistan has been on the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) since June 2018 and the deadline for the final decision has been extended multiple times due to the Covid crisis. The review meetings of the FATF are scheduled for the second week of June and Pakistan is keen to exit the grey list. Pakistan is hopeful that resetting bilateral ties with the US will ease the situation. There are little indications of an alteration in Pakistan’s Afghan policy and the Afghan leadership continues to express its anguish over Pakistan’s dual role which has not allowed Kabul to settle down. However, the fact remains that instability in Afghanistan after US withdrawal will intensify Pakistan’s problems and a probable influx of Afghan refugees into Pakistan is a serious concern in Islamabad. Instability in Afghanistan would also embolden the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) which re-emerged last year and seems to have grown in its operational strength.

A report released by the UN monitoring team in 2020 indicated that the TTP members are active in Kunar and Nangarhar (Afghanistan). In the past, the US alliance has brought significant military dividends for Pakistan. Islamabad received lavish American financial and military assistance amounting to approximately $33 billion between 2002-17. According to the CRS Report for Congress (2007), the arms deliveries to Pakistan from the US alone in the period of 1999-2006 amounted to $4.6 billion at an average of $575 million per annum. The total value of US arms transfer agreements with Pakistan in 1999-2002 was estimated at $2.8 billion with Pakistan, ranking number ten among the list of recipients. However, there has been a steady decline in US aid after Osama bin Laden’s killing in 2011, which convinced a majority of Americans that Islamabad was not sincere in its counter-terrorism efforts.

The US is weighing its options for military bases for surveillance, reconnaissance, ‘limited’ counter-terrorism operations and support to the Afghan Security Forces. The US has four potential options: 1) Pakistan is the most logical option and the framework of cooperation is already in place; 2) The US has been in talks with the Central Asian Republics regarding the air bases but there is little clarity; 3) US bases in the Gulf, including the base in Qatar, which might not be feasible as it would take close to six to eight hours for drones to fly to Afghanistan; and 4) Aircraft carriers in the Arabian sea, which would come with the rider of requiring frequent mid-air refuelling. It remains to be seen to what extent Pakistan would go to support the American counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan. It has managed its relationship quite skillfully in the past with the US and China at the same time. Many questions remain unanswered: Will Pakistan work with the US overtly or will it find an indirect support mechanism for the American drone operations? It is interesting to recall that in 2011, the Shamsi air base where US drones were based, was under the control of the UAE, which handed it over to the US. Will Pakistan once again manage to reset its ties with the US without discomfiting the Chinese? While the answers will unfold shortly as the US withdrawal from Afghanistan proceeds, New Delhi needs to watch these developments carefully to formulate its future strategy in the region.

Supreme Court steps in to safeguard media’s right to criticise govt

IN two judgments this week, the Supreme Court has stood up for the media’s right to criticise or comment on the government’s functioning — so long as there is no incitement to violence or any intention of creating public disorder. – File photo

IN two judgments this week, the Supreme Court has stood up for the media’s right to criticise or comment on the government’s functioning — so long as there is no incitement to violence or any intention of creating public disorder. Quashing a sedition case registered against journalist Vinod Dua for his alleged comments targeting the Prime Minister, the court invoked the landmark judgment in Kedar Nath Singh vs State of Bihar (1962) and ruled that “it is only when the words or expressions have pernicious tendency or intention of creating public disorder or disturbance of law and order that Sections 124A (sedition) and 505 (public mischief) of the IPC must step in.” On Monday, the court had given protection to two Telugu news channels which had been booked under the sedition law for airing views against the Andhra Pradesh government. In that case, the SC said the ambit and parameters of the colonial-era law required interpretation, particularly with regard to the right of the electronic and print media to broadcast/publish content that may be critical of any government anywhere in the country.

The Supreme Court and the High Courts have been repeatedly harking back to the 1962 verdict to specify what amounts to sedition and what doesn’t, besides taking a serious note of the misuse of the draconian law to stifle the citizens’ freedom of speech and expression, guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. It’s disturbing that sedition cases slapped against journalists and activists are on the rise in recent years. However, most of these cases don’t have a leg to stand on in a court of law as these are largely coercive tactics aimed at silencing dissent and criticism. No wonder their conviction rate, which was 33 per cent in 2016, dropped to just 3 per cent in 2019.

It is hoped that the latest judgments will encourage mediapersons to do their job fearlessly and at the same time deter law enforcement agencies from lodging sedition FIRs at the drop of a hat. The verdicts should also serve to caution the powers that be to avoid reducing the law to a terrorising tool.

The work on about 8,000 bunkers have been completed for the safety of the people living along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu province, officials said on Sunday. File photo

Jammu, June 6

The work on about 8,000 bunkers have been completed for the safety of the people living along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu province, officials said on Sunday.

The Centre had sanctioned the construction of 14,460 individual and community bunkers for the border residents in the five districts of Jammu, Kathua and Samba, covering the villages located along the international border, and Poonch and Rajouri villages.

Work in progress on 9,905 structures

The work is in progress on 9,905 bunkers which are under different stages of construction

The Centre had initially sanctioned 14,460 bunkers. Later, over 4,000 additional structures were approved

Later, the government sanctioned over 4,000 additional bunkers to cover the more vulnerable population. “A total of 7,923 bunkers, including 6,964 individual and 959 community structures, have been completed so far in (Jammu) division,” an official spokesman said, as Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Raghav Langer reviewed the progress on the construction of the safety structures at a meeting here.

There has been no major ceasefire violation over the past three months in J&K after India and Pakistan signed a fresh agreement to maintain calm along the border on February 25 this year.

The spokesman said the work was in progress on 9,905 bunkers. Langer took a strong note of delay in tendering of pending bunkers and directed the executive engineers concerned to float the tenders afresh for the constructions, which have not been taken up as yet, for their early completion, the spokesman said. The DCs have been directed to personally monitor the already executed work, while the executing agencies have been asked to expedite the work pace and adhere to the set timelines. — PTI

YK Joshi, Lieutenant General

Jammu, June 6

The Army’s Northern Command devised a four-pronged strategy, including running awareness campaigns, to support the civil administration’s fight against the pandemic even while delivering on its commitments on the security and law and order fronts, Lieutenant General YK Joshi has said.

He said the force reached out to the distressed population in the rural, remote and mountainous areas of the UT through hundreds of ‘Covid patrols’ to lend help in the fight.

The four aspects of the strategy include raising Covid awareness, offering medical services to the ex-service personnel and their dependents to take the load off the civil assets, allowing the use of military medical assets for civil population and pro-actively helping boost the capacities of the civil administration to meet the increased demand during the second wave of Covid, he said.

The Kargil war-hero said, “Special helplines for ex-servicemen were established, means and methods put into place to actively help them even in the remotest areas and each of them telephonically contacted and educated about the Covid or non-covid facility nearest from their place of residence.” — PTI

It has also summoned suspended IG Paramraj Singh Umranangal

Ex-DGP Sumedh Singh Saini

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, June 7

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Kotkapura police firing incident will conduct a second round of questioning of ex-DGP Sumedh Singh Saini at Punjab Police Officer’s Institute in Mohali’s sector 32 at 11 am on Monday.

It has also summoned suspended IG Paramraj Singh Umranangal and other officers concerned with the 2015 incident in which cops opened fire at a mob protesting against the sacrilege incidents.

Saini was DGP at that time.

The SIT is probing who ordered the firing at the mob and whether it was justified.

Hailakandi/Aizawl, June 6

Two abandoned houses along the Mizoram-Assam border have been burned down by unidentified persons, fuelling tension along the volatile inter-state border, police said on Sunday.

Both the states claimed that the incident took place inside their territory on Friday night but no casualty was reported as the houses were empty.

While Assam put the blame on “miscreants from Mizoram”, the neighbouring state pointed the accusing finger at “Bangladeshi immigrants who wanted to flare up the border dispute”.

Hailakandi district Superintendent of Police Ramandeep Kaur claimed that besides burning down the two empty houses belonging to Ali Hussain and Saidul Islam, miscreants from Mizoram have also erected a structure 300 metre inside Assam’s territory near Gutguti area in the district.

An investigation is underway to ascertain the identity of the miscreants involved in the incidents and cases have been registered, she said.

Security has been beefed-up in the area and patrolling has been intensified, the SP said.

The matter has been taken up with higher-level authorities in Mizoram and hopefully, the issue will be resolved soon, Kaur said.

Kaur, along with Hailakandi Deputy Commissioner Rohan Kumar Jha and Ramnathpur police station officer-in-charge Liton Nath visited the area to review the prevailing situation.

The location falls under the inner-line reserve forest area and is very difficult to reach from the Assam side, she said.

Vanlalfaka Ralte, the SP of Mizoram’s Kolasib district, however, claimed that the abandoned houses were located in Zophai area near Bairabi town in the district.

“The houses, abandoned since February this year, were earlier occupied by non-tribals hired by Mizos to look after their paddy fields.

“We suspect that the burning of the houses was a political ploy by Bangladeshi immigrants to revive the border issue between the two neighbouring states,” he told PTI.

The area where the incident took place is within the territory of Mizoram and not within the inner line reserved forest area, he said, adding that the owners of the field have land pattas (documents) in Mizoram and pay land taxes to the state government.

A case has been registered with the Bairabi police station and a manhunt launched to nab the accused.

Since October last year, there have been frequent incidents of burning of houses, allegations of land encroachment and even a bomb blast inside a closed school along the 164.6-km-long Mizoram-Assam border.

The previous incident had taken place near Gallacherra border outpost, under which Gutguti falls, in February and since then, many residents had vacated their houses, Kaur added. PTI

GOC Ambala Sub Area alongwith his Director ECHS; Director RC Chandimandir as well as SO ECHS Stn Cell Chandimandir paid a visit to ECHS Polyclinic Chandigarh today afternoon. The GOC was taken around the entire area. He also interacted with ECHS members present. He was highly satisfied with the visit and conveyed his appreciation for the improvement carried out in the Polyclinic

GRATITUDE

1. When the Corona pandemic’s second wave had fatally engulfed India, a gp of very sprited Indian friends got together in the USA to do something for their Country. Under Mayuri Gosh, this gp contributed, raised and collected money to buy oxygen concentrators for their Countrymen.
2. As it was basically their hard earned money, Mayuri, who works for the World Economic Forum, was very apprehensive that their gift should not get diverted to any unscrupulous agency/org. With this background, she probed the prospect to give these concentrators to an org whose conduct and integrity was beyond reproach- the Indian Army.
3. Being from a civilian background and with no knowledge of the environment here, she got in touch with her close and trusted friend who happened to be a die hard Army brat for help. This Army brats parents resided in Chandigarh and he happens to be Veteran Brig HS Gill, Shaurya Chakra from 17 Para Field Regt
4. Within hours, working through multiple time zones, the proposal was put forth by Brig HS Gill (Retd), SC to Col BB Sharma, OIC ECHS Polyclinic, Chandigarh if he would accept the concentrators. Chandigarh was selected as the receiving org as its credentials were excellent and it happened to be the home ECHS of the Indian Veterans. The issue with its nuts and bolts was processed by Brig TS Mundi, Stn Cdr, Chandimandir and within a day a formal reply was forwarded to the donors of the Army’s and ECHS’s acceptance.
5. In the subsquent week and before the arrival of the items, a lot of coordination, cajoling and managing bureaucratic minefds was carried out by the Stn HQ, Chandimandir to ensure a safe receipt of the concentrators at Delhi Customs. That it was managed without duties and taxes is a feat by itself.
6. These 19 x 10 ltrs, top of the line Oxygen Concentrators have very aptly been distributed to all the ECHS Polyclinics under Stn HQ, Chandimandir as also the Comd Hosp (WC) for their optimum use. The two concentrators received by ECHS Chandigarh are part of this largesse of Mayuri Gosh and her band of dedicated patriots.
7. Our grateful thanks and a salute for their tremendous commitment

ribune News Service
Chandigarh, June 5

The graduation ceremony of the 117th Course of the Army Cadet College (ACC) was held at the Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun, on Saturday, with 29 cadets being conferred degrees by Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

ACC is an integral feeder wing of the IMA and was established to train and induct deserving soldiers into the Army’s officer cadre. 

After three years of training at ACC, the graduating course will join the IMA for one year of pre-commissioning training.

 Congratulating the cadets in his convocation address for completing their challenging three years of training at ACC, Lt Gen Harinder Singh, Commandant IMA, said that the degrees which the cadets have received represents a major milestone in their career and marks the end of an initial, but immensely important phase of their professional life.

He said that ACC alumni have excelled over the years, won the highest gallantry awards and have risen to high ranks. These illustrious predecessors have left an excellent legacy for all of them to emulate.

Brigadier Shailesh Sati, Commander ACC, highlighted the commitment and dedication shown by the cadets and appreciated them for their all-around excellence despite the challenges faced due to Covid restrictions.

Seventeen cadets graduated in humanities and 12 in the science stream. The Chief of Army Staff’s gold, silver and bronze medals for overall performance were awarded to WCA Rituraj Singh, WCC Vikram Gautam and WCQM Dubal Rana, respectively.

The Commandant’s silver medals went to Budal Rana (first in-service subjects), Birendra Singh (first in humanities) and Rituraj Singh (first in science stream). 

The Commandant’s Banner was awarded to the Bogra Company for excelling in various competitions like sports, academics, camps, debates and interior economy.