Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 20

All companies and factories under the Ministry of Defence (MoD) have been told to immediately buy oxygen producing machines and provide extra beds to civil administration and state governments to combat the Covid crisis.

The decision was announced following an emergency virtual meeting chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday.

There are nine public sector undertakings (PSUs) under the MoD. Also, the Ordnance Factory Board has 41 factories while the Defence Research and Development Organisation has multiple units and labs working on dual use technology — military and civil.

The Defence Minister asked the armed forces to be in close contact with state governments and use emergency powers to procure goods needed to fulfil critical medical requirements.

Tejas technology for private industry

• MoD has offered to the private industry a technology developed for oxygen generation onboard Tejas jet
• 1,000 litres of oxygen can be generated per hour; can cater to hospital needs
• A DRDO tech for maintaining blood oxygen level in troops at extreme high altitudes will be used for Covid patients

Pakistan PM Imran Khan.

Islamabad, April 21

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday wished a speedy recovery to former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh who tested positive for COVID-19 and was admitted to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

Singh, 88, was admitted to the AIIMS trauma centre in Delhi, which is a dedicated COVID facility, with a mild fever on Monday.

“Wishing ex Indian PM Manmohan Singh a speedy recovery from Covid 19,” Khan, who recently recovered from COVID-19, said in a tweet.

Singh had taken two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine on March 4 and April 3.

Khan’s message comes amid some signs of easing of tensions in bilateral ties. In February, the militaries of the two countries announced a ceasefire agreement.

The bilateral relations deteriorated after India announced withdrawing special powers of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcation of the state into two union territories in August 2019.

The move angered Pakistan, which downgraded diplomatic ties with India and expelled the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad. Pakistan also snapped all air and land links with India and suspended trade and railway services. PTI

Sivasagar, April 21

Three employees of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) were on Wednesday kidnapped by suspected ULFA(I) militants from its Lakwa oilfield in Sivasagar district along the Assam-Nagaland border.

The PSU, in a statement, said that the three employees had been kidnapped by armed miscreants in the early hours of Wednesday from a rig site of ONGC in Lakwa field of Sivasagar.

The three employees have been identified as MM Gogoi and Ritul Saikia – both junior technicians (production) – and Alakesh Saikia, a junior engineering assistant, an ONGC spokesperson told PTI.

“The kidnapped employees were taken by the miscreants in an operational vehicle belonging to ONGC. Later, the vehicle was found abandoned near the Nimonagarh jungle close to the Assam-Nagaland border,” the statement said.

A senior official of the Sivasagar district administration said that suspected ULFA(I) militants are behind this kidnapping and they escaped through Nagaland.

“These are very preliminary findings. We can talk about it after some investigation,” he added.

No demand for ransom or anything else has been received.

ONGC said a complaint had been lodged with the local police and higher officials had reached the site.

“Local administration has been informed and ONGC is in touch with the authorities,” it added.

The company said it had been exploring and producing oil and gas in Upper Assam since the early 1960s. PTI

New Delhi, April 18

The Ministry of Defence has invited entries suggesting ‘innovative tributes to bravehearts’. Members of the public can send in their entries which will be tribute messages for the gallantry awardees. The competition is being held from 15th April to 15th May 2021. Citizens of India can send in their unique and innovative tributes to salute the bravehearts of the nation. Entries received as a part of the competition will be adjudged on the basis of elements of creativity, originality, composition and simplicity and how well they highlight the vision and objectives of the Gallantry Awards portal.

The winners will be recognised on the Gallantry Awards portal and its related social media channels. Details can be seen on www.gallantryawards.gov.in. — TNS

Not long ago, China asserted its claims on the South China Sea by building and fortifying artificial islands in waters also claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia. Its strategy is to reinforce those outposts by swarming the disputed waters with vessels, effectively defying the other countries to expel them.

The goal is to accomplish by overwhelming presence what it has been unable to do through diplomacy or international law.

“China pretty clearly thinks that if it uses enough coercion and pressure over a long enough period of time, it will squeeze the Southeast Asians out,” said Greg Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.


China’s actions reflect the country’s growing confidence under its leader, Xi Jinping. They could test the Biden administration as well as Beijing’s neighbours in the South China Sea, who are increasingly dependent on China’s strong economy and supply of COVID-19 vaccines.

The latest incident has unfolded in recent weeks around Whitsun Reef, a boomerang-shaped feature that emerges above water only at low tide. At one point in March, 220 Chinese ships were reported to be anchored around the reef, prompting protests from Vietnam and the Philippines, which both have claims there, and from the United States.

Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana called their presence “a clear provocation.” Vietnam’s foreign ministry accused China of violating the country’s sovereignty and demanded that the ships leave.

By this past week, some had left but many remained, according to satellite photographs taken by Maxar Technologies, a company based in Colorado. Others moved to another reef only a few miles away, while a new swarm of 45 Chinese ships was spotted 100 miles northeast at another island controlled by the Philippines, Thitu, according to the satellite photos and Philippine officials.

The buildup has inflamed tensions in a region that, along with Taiwan, threatens to become another flashpoint in the intensifying confrontation between China and the United States.

Although the United States has not taken a position on disputes in the South China Sea, it has criticized China’s aggressive tactics there. For years, the United States has sent Navy warships on routine patrols to challenge China’s asserted right to restrict any military activity there — three times since President Joe Biden took office in January.

9 Mahar troops, on their own, washed the interior of a mosque and whitewashed the exterior, in keeping with the Indian Army’s ethos

Photo for representation only. – File photo

Col Bimal Bhatia (Retd)

Towards the end of the 1971 India-Pakistan war, as our battalion formed up to march back, a sense of pride filled our hearts. Spring was in the air in the first week of March 1972 when we withdrew our forces from Pakistan after almost three months.

The first week of December 1971 saw us on the outskirts of Shakargarh in Pakistan. For more than 24 hours, we had been without food or water as we closed in on to their defences 20 km in depth. Further attempts to breach the defences did not yield results and after the ceasefire on December 17, we firmed in along the Shakargarh-Nainakot road.

A young Second Lieutenant having ‘celebrated’ my 20th birthday in the trenches, I was fortunate to be in the screen company.

On the outskirts of Shakargarh, next to the tiny deserted village of Badwal, without rations and maps, we found ourselves grounded by fire from the other side of river Bein that prevented our advance. I took a patrol to the adjoining village to get food, and despite being strafed by a couple of low-flying Sabres, we managed to gather enough from the village to fortify our company.

With no further headway, the ceasefire found us in the same position next to this abandoned village. Nestled inside Badwal was a mosque. As the troops started shaking off the war stress, they were instructed to keep the mosque in good repair. Mixed troops in our battalion, 9 Mahar, were a delight to lead in war.

Clearly we were to be firmed in here for a long haul. Construction of bunkers, reorganisation of defences, sprinkled by VIP visits, engaged most of our time.

Over a month later, following the pre-dawn stand-to (alert just before first light), our Company Commander and I settled on our camp stools with a cup of hot tea. That’s when our jaws dropped. Illuminated by the rising sun, we sighted the mosque, resplendent in a new exterior, shining white. Unknown to us, our men had gone into action the previous evening. These enterprising chaps had washed the interior and swept the floor, and even managed to whitewash the mosque’s exterior.

The stout Havildar Gurdial Singh, forever cutting jokes, even while those menacing Sabres circled overhead, had been the working party commander at the mosque the previous night. Duly summoned, he appeared with his men, somewhat apprehensive. When told that it was a job well done, his face lit up and he received a pat on the back with utmost modesty. Other men responded similarly, taking pride in the uniform and in having upheld another man’s religion, even if he was the enemy.

Is there a message here about the universality of human kindness and respect for the other’s God? Sepoy Lal Singh recovered a Koran and brought it to me. A fleeing villager might have dropped it in a moment of panic before we arrived. This Koran I placed with utmost respect in my bunker. Later, I sent it to my mother in Chandigarh, who believes in all gods.

She placed the Koran in her prayer room, along with pictures of Guru Nanak and Christ. Later, she offered it to the Sindgi family, our kindly neighbours, who were overwhelmed on hearing of the safe passage of the holy book.

As the ‘Swarnim Vijay Mashaal’ lit by Prime Minister Modi on the 50th anniversary of the 1971 war circulates all over India, let it carry with it an attendant message of love, peace and understanding among all people for the betterment of humanity. Our men of 9 Mahar exemplified this so beautifully in a remote village inside Pakistan in keeping with the Indian Army’s ethos engrained over a long period. 

The Pashtuns hold the key to immediate peace as all Taliban belong to that ethnic race. With a possible security vacuum after the US withdrawal, ethnic affiliation on both sides of the Durand line and a landlocked Afghanistan’s dependence on it, Pakistan emerges as the most important external influencer.

Pullout: Biden’s decision to bring back troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, has a wide appeal domestically. Reuters

Luv Puri

Senior Journalist and Author

In the last quarter of 2009, the Barack Obama administration was considering modifying the US strategy in Afghanistan as there were contesting arguments on the question of whether a surge of troops should be attempted or not. Ultimately, General Stanley McChrystal, the overall military commander in the country, made a case that more troops were needed to fight the growing insurgency and make some social gains. This argument prevailed.

The US troops’ strength in Afghanistan increased to 98,000. Instead of counter-terrorism, a strategy of counter-insurgency, as was done in Iraq, was promoted with an aim to win over the hearts and minds of Afghan people. During his trip to Afghanistan in December, 2009, the US defence secretary, Robert Gates, reportedly noted that the US mistakenly abandoned Afghanistan in 1989 as it fought the Soviets and that he understood Afghans’ concerns that they would be left alone against the Taliban. He added he would try to assure President Karzai and his advisers “that we are not going to repeat the situation [of] 1989” and that “we intend to be their partner for a long time to come.”

On April 14, 2021, President Biden, who as Vice-President had opposed the troop surge, announced the end to the presence of US troops in Afghanistan on September 11, 2021. In practical terms, the decision is more symbolic as the US troops have already dwindled to 2,500, with the US allies contributing 9,500.

The then President Trump may have been reckless and undiplomatic, but his view on bringing troops back to the country was a reflection of the sentiment that existed across the US, particularly in mid-western and southern states where the bulk of military recruitment takes place. Even though many Republican senators have protested, Biden’s decision to bring back troops has a wider appeal domestically, though many assumptions about peace were and are still predicated on brittle foundations.

Biden has said: “We were attacked, we went to war with clear goals.” He added, “We achieved those objectives. Bin Laden is dead and al-Qaida is degraded in Afghanistan, and it’s time to end this forever war.”

The attack on Afghanistan led to the quick downfall of the Taliban as regime leaders and Bin Laden fled the urban centres. Ultimately, Bin Laden was killed in 2011 in Abbottabad, eastern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, nearly nine years after the Taliban rule was dislodged in Afghanistan. The Pothwari-speaking Abottabad is closer to Pakistani-administered Jammu and Kashmir in ethnic and geographic terms and is far away from Afghanistan.

Secondly, al-Qaida and Taliban are different entities and it took time for this reality to sink in within the US security apparatus. Actually, it was Saudi-born Bin Laden’s transnational connections and deep pockets that enabled him to conspire to attack the US on September 9, 2001, and not al-Qaida’s mere presence in Afghanistan.https://7a64296af5e423b0a17593809ad440c5.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

Moreover, the linkages of the Taliban — who are local Pashtuns — with Arab fighters, which became al-Qaida’s main ethnic base, were forged during the Afghan jihad sponsored by the US.

Pakistan, Russia, India, China and Turkey were the countries identified by Biden in his televised address, which, according to him, should play their part in bringing peace in Afghanistan. At a practical level, China is not yet a player in Afghanistan and has generally been reluctant to expend resources in the complicated landscape of Afghanistan. Russian influence in Afghanistan is mainly on account of Central Asian countries like Uzbekistan and Tajikistan which share ethnic ties with the Uzbeks and Tajiks, ethnic groups living in the peripheral areas of Afghanistan.

The mention of Turkey, not an immediate neighbour of Afghanistan with limited historical ties, seems to be a way to undercut the potential influence of Saudis over Afghanistan that had fueled the rise of extremist Islam. In addition to US and Saudi money helping support the war against Soviets in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia infused Deobandi seminaries with the Wahhabi ideology.

There is hardly any doubt that the Pashtuns are the ones that hold the key to immediate peace as all Taliban belong to that ethnic race. With a possible security vacuum after the US withdrawal, strong ethnic affiliation on both sides of the Durand line and a landlocked Afghanistan’s dependence on its eastern neighbour, Pakistan emerges as the most important external influencer. It will both shape as well feel the impact of Afghanistan’s future.https://7a64296af5e423b0a17593809ad440c5.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

Pakistan’s own disjointed institutional approach toward Islamic extremism, its vulnerabilities in its own Pashtun heartland and suspicion over India’s role in Afghanistan are some of the vectors that may influence this complex relationship. Iran could provide alternative seaport access to Afghanistan for trade. Biden didn’t mention Iran because of the animus-ridden US-Iran ties.

India has its limitations — because of no direct land route — as well as strengths. One of the lesser known facts is the Pashtuns’ ties with India’s Deobandi Islamic School which was founded in the latter half of the 19th century. The bifurcation of British India in 1947 severed the institutional links between Deobandi seminaries in Afghanistan and Pakistan and in India. Pashtuns played a big role in the Afghan jihad, and a large number of these fighters were drawn from the Deobandi seminaries.

Going forward, India, by promoting ties between Deobands and Pashtuns in Afghans, may help to moderate the Deobandi Islam as practised in Afghanistan. This approach could help the Pashtuns to have a more contextual interpretation of various religious edicts and promote debate, engagement and coexistence with the non-Pashtun Muslims. This could also help in supporting efforts in the direction of national conciliation among the diverse array of ethnic and sectarian groups in the country.

Biden’s announcement reflects a sobering reality that the exercise of state/nation-building, even with a vast corpus of external resources and backed by the strongest military the human history has seen, has its limits.

Biden and the American policy elite have reconciled to the fact that Afghanistan’s internal social realities and geography would shape its future, for good or bad.

BRO starts highway clearance work to restore traffic movement

Tribune News Service

Mandi, April 18

Following heavy snowfall at the Baralacha La on Saturday, the Manali-Leh highway remained closed for traffic on the second consecutive day on Sunday.

Due to the highway closure, a large number of vehicles were stranded at Darcha and Sarchu on both sides of the Baralacha pass in the region.

On Sunday, the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) started the snow-clearance operation on the Manali-Leh highway near the Baralacha pass to restore the traffic movement in the region.

Route unfit for travel for a week

The highway won’t be fit for traffic movement near the Baralacha pass for at least a week, so people are advised to avoid taking this route. The movement of tourists from Darcha towards Sarchu is also restricted. — Manav Verma, SP, Lahaul & Spiti

According to the BRO sources, around 5-ft fresh snowfall was reported at the Baralacha pass on Saturday. Strong blizzard and freezing temperature are posing difficulty for the BRO to clear the road.

Travelling on the Manali-Leh highway has become a risky affair because the entire stretch from Darcha to Sarchu is now an avalanche-prone area following the fresh snowfall.

According to Manav Verma, Superintendent of Police, Lahaul Spiti, the top priority of the district administration is to evacuate the stranded vehicles as well as people from Darcha and Sarchu and send them to their native places safely as soon as the BRO restores the highway for the traffic movement via the Baralacha pass.

The SP said the highway would not be fit for normal traffic movement near the Baralacha pass for at least a week, so people have been advised to avoid their journey on this route during this period.

Meanwhile, the stranded people are waiting desperately for the restoration of the highway to head towards their native places. So far, 788 stranded people have been evacuated by the police, BRO and ITBP personnel in Lahaul Spiti two days ago. Still a large number of people are stuck in the region.

Lahaul Spiti DC Pankaj Rai said the district administration was providing free ration to the stranded people and arrangements had been made for their stay.

He said as soon as the highway was restored, all of them would be sent to their native places with immediate effect.

The police detain farm activists after a protest in Kurukshetra on Sunday. tribune Photo

Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, April 18

About 70 farmers were detained today for having shown black flags to Kurukshetra MP Nayab Singh Saini at Saini Samaj Bhawan here. He was in the city to attend an event in the honour of BR Ambedkar, whose birth anniversary was on April 14.

Besides Saini, Sports Minister Sandeep Singh, Thanesar MLA Subhash Sudha and other BJP leaders attended the event.

Congress workers protesting

Farmers are our brothers. Those protesting at the Delhi borders are not farmers, but Congress workers.— Nayab Singh Saini, Kurukshetra MP

On getting information about Saini’s visit, around 200 farmers gathered at the venue and raised slogans against the BJP-JJP government and the Kurukshetra MP.

The police tried to disperse farmers, but they did not move. Subsequently, they were detained and taken to the Police Lines. They were let off later.

BKU (Charuni) activist Jasbir Singh Mamumajra said, “Farmers have requested BJP and JJP leaders numerous times to not hold any event till the movement is on, but they seem to be not bothered. The Kurukshetra MP has been holding back-to-back events in his segment. He has been trying to instigate farmers.”

District BKU (Charuni) president Krishan Kumar said farmers were protesting peacefully and showing black flags to BJP leaders, but the police forcibly dispersed them.

“The police and the district administration have been issuing challans to the public for violating Covid guidelines, but BJP leaders have been holding back-to-back programmes here without getting challaned. Farmers will meet the DC on Monday to discuss the matter. If farmers are stopped again from holding peaceful protests, we will block roads,” he said.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Ravinder Tomar said, “Initially, farmers said they would protest peacefully and wouldn’t disrupt the event. On their assurance, they were designated a site to protest. But they deviated from the plan and assembled near Saini Samaj Bhawan after having removed police barricades. In spite of repeated requests, they refused to leave.”