Sqn Ldr Abhinav Choudhary was on training sortie

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, May 21

An Indian Air Force MiG-21 Bison fighter aircraft crashed in a field near Langeana Kalan village, 24 km from Moga district headquarters, around 11.30 pm on Thursday, killing pilot Sqn Ldr Abhinav Choudhary. 

The aircraft was on a routine training sortie when the mishap took place. The pilot was returning to Suratgarh in Rajasthan after the training sorties near Jagraon in Ludhiana, said Gurdeep Singh, SP (H), Moga.

The police got information about the incident around 11.30 pm when it was raining in the area. The police immediately rushed to the spot and started the search for the pilot. The body of the pilot was found at a distance of about 2 km from the MiG-21 crash spot, said the SP.

By the morning, senior officers of the Air Force from Halwara and Bathinda along with medical teams reached the spot. There was no other loss to property or human lives in the area when the aircraft crashed, said the SP.

A court of inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the cause of the crash, sources said

98-yr-old’s gesture for fellow ex-servicemen wins hearts

Nonagenerian Lance Naik Kesho Lal Verma being honoured by Vajra Corps Station Commander Brig HS Sohi at his residence in Lal Kurti Bazaar, Jalandhar Cantt, on Thursday. Tribune photo

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 20

Defying his age and other constraints, a rare gesture shown by 98-year-old Lance Naik Kesho Lal Verma (retd) to walk down to the Sub Area Headquarters of Vajra Corps for handing over an amount of Rs1 lakh for Covid-affected fellow ex-servicemen has won everyone’s heart.

In return, he too received an overwhelming gesture from the Corps officials. The Station Commander treated him reverently and got himself snapped. The picture went viral last evening via the WhatsApp groups of veterans, who were also motivated to not just sit back at home during the Covid times and donate generously.

Reciprocating his gesture, Station Brig HS Sohi on Thursday went to his place at Lal Kurti Bazaar in Jalandhar Cantonment and felicitated him. He presented him a bouquet of flowers and a basket of fresh fruits. Later in the day, Col Dalwinder Singh (retd) from the District Welfare Office visited his place and took him to his office for another function to honour him.

The nonagenerian is seemingly quite fit as he did not have much difficulty in mobility though he wobbled a bit. He also seemed full of life despite solitude. He shared that he lost his only son, who was a naval officer, in 2011 and his family lives in Vishakhapatnam. Here he was living with his cook.

The veteran was born on November 22, 1922. He had served with Royal Indian Army Service Corps (MT), South East Asia Command, prior to the Independence and continued to serve the Indian Army until retirement in September 1965.

Recalling all dates and chronological incidents correctly at this age, Lance Naik Verma shared the journey of his life, “I originally hail from Arra village of Pakistan. I got inducted in army near Islamabad in November 1940. Thereafter, army took me to Pune. I did several trainings and even went to Burma. I used to serve as a driver for many officials, drove military ambulances and vehicles for ration supplies.”

On his donation, he said, “I draw a pension of Rs35,000 a month and have a reasonable saving. I wanted to utilise this amount for some good cause and hence though to donate for the well-being of my fellow brethren. 

91-year-old Milkha in home isolation, doing fine, says wife

Milkha Singh was following a strict routine during the lockdown to keep himself fit. File photo

Deepankar Sharda

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 20

One of the fittest persons in his age group, Flying Sikh Milkha Singh tested positive for Covid-19 today.

The 91-year-old living legend is currently in home isolation at his Sector 8 residence and is responding well to the treatment. At the time of the filing of this report, he was not having any fever and was maintaining an oxygen saturation level of 95-97.

Last night, he had high fever and was straightway put in home isolation.

“He is responding well to the treatment. Doctors have asked us to focus on giving him more liquid diet. He is talking clearly and responding to all of us. He had a fever 101, but now has a normal body temperature,” said Nirmal Milkha Singh, his wife.

Responding well to treatment

He is responding well to the treatment. Doctors have asked us to focus on giving him more liquid diet. He is talking clearly and responding to all of us. He had a fever of 101, but now has a normal body temperature. —Nirmal Milkha Singh, wife

“I was very tense since I had never thought of anything like this happening to him. He follows a strict routine and is actively spreading awareness among the public. I pray to God for his speedy recovery,” she said. A team of PGI doctors is treating Milkha, while his daughter Mona Milkha Singh, who is a doctor at Metropolitan Hospital Center in New York and has been treating patients of Covid-19, is also monitoring his health.

His son, golfer Jeev Milkha Singh, a four-time European Tour champion, is currently out of India and will return from Dubai later this week.

“One of our house helps had fever and later he tested positive for Covid. On Wednesday, we all (12 people) underwent testing and thereafter got to know about him. All others, including my daughter-in-law and grandson, have tested negative, but we are following Covid-19 SOPs,” said Nirmal Milkha Singh.

A regular at the Chandigarh Golf Club, the former Commonwealth Games champion and 1960 Rome Olympian had been following a strict routine during the lockdown to keep himself fit. Earlier today, he was invited to attend the opening of a mini-Covid care centre at the Sector 43 Sports Complex, which was inaugurated by UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore.

Celebratory scenes in Gaza; 244 people dead, including 65 children

Palestinians celebrate in the streets following a ceasefire, in Gaza City on May 21, 2021. Reuters

Gaza/Jerusalem, May 21

An Egyptian-mediated truce between Israel and Hamas began on Friday, but Hamas warned it still had its “hands on the trigger” and demanded Israel end the violence in Jerusalem and address the damages in Gaza Strip after the worst fighting in years.

US President Joe Biden pledged to salve the devastated Gaza. Aerial bombardment of the densely populated area killed 232 Palestinians, while rocket attacks killed 12 people in Israel during the conflict.

Palestinians, many of whom had spent 11 days huddled in fear of Israeli shelling, poured into Gaza’s streets. Mosque loud-speakers feted “the victory of the resistance achieved over the Occupation (Israel).”

Cars driving around East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah at dawn flew Palestinian flags and honked horns, echoing the celebratory scenes in Gaza.

In the countdown to the 2 am cease-fire, Palestinian rocket salvoes continued and Israel carried out at least one air strike.

Each side said it stood ready to retaliate for any truce violations by the other. Cairo said it would send two delegations to monitor the ceasefire.

The violence erupted on May 10, triggered by Palestinians’ anger at what they saw as Israeli curbs on their rights in Jerusalem, including during police confrontations with protesters at Al-Aqsa mosque during the Ramadan fasting month.

The fighting meant many Palestinians in Gaza could not mark the Eid al-Fitr festival at Ramadan’s conclusion. On Friday, throughout Gaza, postponed Eid al-Fitr meals were held instead.

In Israel, radio stations that had carried around-the-clock news and commentary switched back to pop music and folk songs.

Death toll

Gaza health officials said 232 Palestinians, including 65 children, had been killed and more than 1,900 wounded in aerial bombardments. Israel said it had killed at least 160 combatants.

Authorities put the death toll in Israel at 12, with hundreds of people treated for injuries in rocket attacks that caused panic and sent people rushing into shelters.

Hamas, the Islamist militant group that rules Gaza, cast the fighting as successful resistance of a militarily and economically stronger foe.

“It is true the battle ends today but (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and the whole world should know that our hands are on the trigger and we will continue to grow the capabilities of this resistance,” said Ezzat El-Reshiq, a senior member of the Hamas political bureau.

He told Reuters in Doha that the movement’s demands also include protecting Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and ending the eviction of several Palestinians from their home in East Jerusalem which Reshiq described as “a red line”.

“What comes after the battle of ‘Sword of Jerusalem’ is not like what came before because the Palestinian people backed the resistance and know that the resistance is what will liberate their land and protect their holy sites,” Reshiq said.

In Israel, relief was bittersweet.

“It’s good that the conflict will end, but unfortunately I don’t feel like we have much time before the next escalation,” Eiv Izyaev, a 30-year-old software engineer, said in Tel Aviv.

Amid growing global alarm, Biden had urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek de-escalation, while Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations sought to mediate.

In a televised address on Thursday, Biden extended condolences to bereaved Israelis and Palestinians and said Washington would work with the United Nations “and other international stakeholders to provide rapid humanitarian assistance” for Gaza and its reconstruction.

Biden said aid would be coordinated with the Palestinian Authority – run by Hamas’ rival, President Mahmoud Abbas, and based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank – “in a manner that does not permit Hamas to simply restock its military arsenal”.

Hamas is deemed a terrorist group in the West and by Israel, which it refuses to recognise.

Power struggle

Analysts saw a key goal of Hamas’s rocket campaign as being to marginalise Abbas by presenting itself as the guardian of Palestinians in Jerusalem, whose eastern sector they seek for a future state.

Making the link explicit, Hamas named the rocket operation “Sword of Jerusalem”.

Abbas, 85, remained a marginal figure during the 11-day conflict. He secured a first telephone call with Biden during the crisis  – four months after Biden took office – but his western-backed Palestinian Authority exerts little influence over Gaza, and he made no public comment after the truce was announced.

Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, an Abbas appointee, said “We welcome the success of the international efforts led by Egypt to stop the Israeli aggression against our people in Gaza Strip,” in comments published by Palestinian media.

In perhaps a worrying sign for Abbas in his West Bank heartland, some Palestinians waved green Hamas flags in Ramallah, the seat of his government.

Hamas previously demanded that any halt to the Gaza fighting be accompanied by Israeli drawdowns in Jerusalem. An Israeli official told Reuters there was no such condition in the truce.

The State Department said that Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken planned to travel to the Middle East, where he would meet with Israeli, Palestinian, and regional leaders to discuss recovery efforts.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Israeli and Palestinian leaders had a responsibility beyond the restoration of calm to address the root causes of the conflict,” he told reporters with serious dialogue.

“Gaza is an integral part of the future Palestinian state and no effort should be spared to bring about real national reconciliation that ends the division,” he said. Reuters

Encounter lasted around an hour, after which remaining Naxals escaped into dense forest

File photo for representation only.

Mumbai, May 21

At least 13 Naxals were killed in an encounter with police’s C-60 commandos in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra early on Friday, officials said.

The skirmish took place around 5.30 am in the forest at Kotmi in Etapalli, where the Naxals had gathered for a meeting, said Sandeep Patil, Deputy Inspector General of Gadchiroli.

“Based on specific inputs, the police party, comprising C-60 commandos, had launched a search operation in the forest,” he said.

However, the ultras spotted the police party and opened fire, following which the C-60 commandos retaliated, in which 13 Naxals were killed, he said.

 The encounter lasted around an hour, after which the remaining Naxals escaped into the dense forest, said Ankit Goyal, Superintendent of Police, Gadchiroli.

Bodies of the Naxals have been recovered from the spot and a search operation in the area is still on, he said. PTI

‘First time in life he complained of weakness, body ache’, says wife

Deepankar ShardaAdvertisement

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 20

Milkha Singh, an athletic legend whose performance had earned him the title of Flying Sikh, has tested positive for Covid-19.

Though his condition is stated to be stable, he is learnt to be having 101 fever since Wednesday night. He is currently under home isolation, informed his wife Nirmal Milkha Singh.

Nirmal Kaur said that Milkha was checked by PGIMER doctors and they have given requisite medicines.

About her husband contracting the infection, she said, “A cook, who had been with the family for the last 50 years, reported high fever a few days ago.”    

 “He used to mostly stay here, but occasionally he used to go to his Kishangarh village here. A few days ago, he told our driver to check his temperature and he found him running a high fever.

“He had concealed from us that he had been running a fever for the past few days. He was sent home and tested positive,” she said.

She said a couple of days before Milkha’s COVID test was done, he had told her about feeling slight weakness.

“This was the first time in my life that he had complained of weakness and body ache,” she said.

Recently, the 91-year-old legend had called upon people to stay indoors during the lockdown period to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Last month, his daughter Mona Milkha Singh, who is a doctor at the Metropolitan Hospital Center in New York, had received applaud  for attending to emergency patients of coronavirus. His son, Jeev Milkha Singh, a four-time European Tour champion, had requested people to pay request to all frontline workers. Milkha had also donated Rs 2 lakh to UT Administrator for fighting the pandemic.

Chandigarh, May 19

A 99-year-old former soldier belonging to the British times has donated Rs 1 lakh to the Army for fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. The soldier, Lance Naik Kesho Lal Verma, visited the Sub-Area Headquarters in Jalandhar today and handed over a cheque to senior Army officers.

Speaking to The Tribune from his residence in Jalandhar Cantonment, Verma said he had spent 16 years in the Army after having enrolled in 1942. He had served with the erstwhile Royal Indian Army Service Corps and was deployed with the British Army’s South East Asia Command during the World War-II.

After leaving the Army, he was employed with the state-run Pepsu Roadways in Punjab. — TNS

Ex Servicemen wing President Gurjinder Singh Sidhu said the Service Selection Board had wrongly fixed the age limit for ex-servicemen applying for the post of jail wardens at 35 years. He said due to this a large number of ex-servicemen were not able to apply for the post and demanded that the age limit be extended to 42 years.

Sidhu said the Punjab government had announced 800 vacancies for jail wardens but under the present age limit condition ex-servicemen would not be able to apply for the same. Besides demanding an immediate change in the age limit, Mr Sidhu said the last date for applying for the posts should also be extended from the present May 31 deadline.

Strategic instability is to be expected, especially when there is a large size differential between two nuclear-armed countries, as is the case between India and Pakistan. Conversely, striving for strategic stability is good for avoiding war. But this has no single end-state and requires careful attention, one new weapon system at a time. Seeking an edge over the opponent is more dangerous when official statements show peace is fragile and rhetoric is high during moments of tension
OPEN government assessments of the state of India-Pakistan deterrence are rare. A recent US intelligence overview considered a ‘general war’ between the two countries ‘unlikely’, although ‘heightened tensions’ remain a ‘concern for the world’, raising the risk of ‘conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbours’.
While awaiting the first major statement on South Asia by US President Joe Biden’s administration, the words of the previous administration’s Secretary of Defence, spoken last July, are still relevant. I had asked specifically about the nuclear and crisis stability. The six-sentence answer repeated three times that the matter was under close US observation. On short-term prospects for escalation, the statement was categorical: ‘I don’t see any indications right now that’s happening at all’.
Ten months on, there is indeed no imminent crisis. Since February, there are even signs and reports of decreased, rather than increased tensions.
Yet today, a new analysis published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) provides comprehensive evidence of the persistence of major unresolved sources of instability at the heart of the India-Pakistan nuclear deterrence relationship, 23 years after they overtly tested nuclear weapons.
There exist grave deficiencies and asymmetries in the nuclear doctrines of India and Pakistan, which are compounded by mutual disbelief, existing and emerging military capabilities, and the prolonged absence of related dialogue mechanisms.
There is no indisputable yardstick to judge a nuclear doctrine. Yet a universal perspective is possible: with nuclear weapons, necessity and proportionality, as cornerstones of the laws of war and civilised conduct outweigh claims of regional or cultural exceptionalism. Moreover, nuclear doctrines, while not immutable, are designed to last. They carry weight and deserve respect.
Strategic instability is to be expected, especially when there is a large size differential between two nuclear-armed countries, as is the case between India and Pakistan. Conversely, striving for strategic stability is good for avoiding war. But this has no single end-state and requires careful attention, one new weapon system at a time. Seeking an edge over the opponent is more dangerous when official statements show peace is fragile and rhetoric is high during moments of tension.
In the specific case of nuclear doctrines of India and Pakistan, textual analysis finds these are not symmetrical. Most worryingly, neither side believes the other side’s core tenets. Doctrines suggest a scenario in which both sides could use nuclear weapons disproportionately. Meanwhile, that India’s no-first-use commitment is a bedrock of its policy is not in doubt.
Capabilities-wise, in conventional weaponry, neither side has a qualitative edge, even if India outdoes Pakistan by every measure of quantity. Based on numbers of nuclear warheads only, the growing arsenal sizes of both are broadly equal as far as can be determined. India and Pakistan claim to already possess sufficient weapons to ensure a robust, largely stable mutual nuclear deterrence. Both have a fledgling capability to mobilise enough nuclear weapons to strike back after being struck. But neither can yet launch a first strike against the other’s military with any assurance of success.
Each is developing new missile types in addition to India’s seven and Pakistan’s nine nuclear-capable missile designations in service. Apart from the high cost of the arms race in the post-pandemic era, nuclear expansion casts doubt on their stated policies of having minimally-sized nuclear arsenals.
Beyond, India and Pakistan seek relevant technologies and capabilities in the naval or space domains. Sober analysis can identify which threshold capabilities may or may not become actual military options. But the strategic whole is arguably greater than the sum of the parts: India and Pakistan may continue to dangerously undermine each other’s defence under the nuclear threshold and this could further affect future crisis stability negatively.
Meanwhile, crisis triggers persist. In February 2019, tensions saw India and Pakistan make unprecedented use of airpower in each other’s territory. The uncomfortable truth is that, based on what is known, chance played an ameliorative role in this episode. Whichever the lessons learnt from past crises, India and Pakistan are in uncharted territory requiring enlightened judgement.
The diagnosis is incomplete without considering the manifest fatigue in both capitals about confidence-building measures (CBMs). Over a dozen past agreements remain in place, an often unsung achievement. But CBMs have in-built limitations and a chequered history in South Asia. Not one has been adopted in the prolonged diplomatic lost decade since the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Yet enabled by top-level political will, CBMs can lay a foundation upon which trust can grow.
Overall, these many challenges to nuclear deterrence stability do not mean that the proverbial next crisis between India and Pakistan, one major terrorist attack away, will necessarily hit the nuclear threshold. But they make it more likely that the situation may come close to it. India and Pakistan could stumble into using their nuclear weapons through miscalculation or misinterpretation.
The stakes keep rising. A nuclear exchange would have catastrophic consequences for the two countries, including appalling ones for human security. Economically, even compared to the cost of the Covid-19 pandemic (both countries’ worst post-independence economic shock), the damage from nuclear use would likely be several times higher.
For onlookers, the use of a nuclear weapon for anything else than the tallest order of national interest — to ensure survival of the state — would be entirely unacceptable because the effects would be multidimensional and uncontainable, well beyond the breach of a norm in place since 1945. Among others, the hit to the global economy would be severe and systemic.
The UK, during the 2001-02 tensions, conservatively estimated at £20 billion the hit to its economy from a nuclear use in South Asia. In today’s currency and context, this figure alone might translate into nearly two- thirds of what that country is spending, supporting individuals and families in the pandemic.
Wider damage, however hard to assess, would be commensurate to India and Pakistan’s joint rising share of global GDP and trade over the last generation. A recent US intelligence report suggests a doubling of India’s share of world GDP by 2040, lifting it to the third position, from sixth today. Since India now discusses technology and supply chain resilience at the Quad high table with the US, Japan and Australia, the future shared costs of a disruption from an imprudent or mistaken use of nuclear weapons in the region could rise even higher.
Growing consensus on seeing Asia through the Indo-Pacific lens is also reshaping the matter. China’s evolving profile as a nuclear-weapons state compounds India’s security challenges. But control over the drivers of the India-Pakistan nuclear deterrence and stability equation remains almost entirely in the hands of leaders in New Delhi and Islamabad. Yet implications for crisis management are unclear.
With such facts and many more, this situation and its policy implications become more widely accessible. For its part, the report concludes neither India nor Pakistan can afford to be complacent. Only they can choose to creatively overcome the challenges to nuclear deterrence stability. To this end, the study proposes 15 measures India and Pakistan’s leaderships can choose from to prioritise nuclear stability, without conceding that each can deter the other; that nuclear weapons are instruments of last resort, and mutual vulnerability can be a factor of stability.