Arun Joshi
Jammu, July 2

Pakistan is in a shambles, and it has lost Kashmir. This was a stinging but realistic comment by Senator Sherry Rehman of Pakistan about her country, which she feels has lost everything and nothing is left to hope for.

Sherry Rehman is a parliamentary leader of the Pakistan People’s Party in the senate, Upper House of Pakistan Parliament. Her comment — reflecting on a hard-hitting editorial in today’s Dawn newspaper about the proceedings in the National Assembly — was realistic as she spoke about the state of affairs of Pakistan under Prime Minister Imran Khan.

She summed it up on Twitter: “Kashmir gone, what’s left.” This was a biting reality that no Pakistan leader of her stature — a diplomat, politician and intellectual — has ever stated in these terms.

There could be many interpretations to the expression “Kashmir gone”, but the most plausible seems to be that Kashmir has slipped out of the hands of Pakistani influence, which the country wielded on certain sections in the valley.

Interestingly, the Dawn editorial titled “Lack of restraint” did not mention anything about Kashmir, though it was quite scathing about Imran Khan and his ways of conducting himself while delivering speeches. It has shown the mirror to the Pakistani ruling elite, particularly the Prime Minister, as to how things have gone wrong for them.

Sherry’s tweet read: “It’s not only about inappropriate speeches in Parliament. Who will stop your PM from destroying Pakistan? Three more years and nothing may be left. Economy is worse, debts r higher, mafias on the rampage, PIA being cannibalised, Kashmir gone, what’s left?”

The remarks on Kashmir are significant as these have come against the backdrop of Pakistan’s loudest voice in Kashmir, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, having resigned from his faction of the Hurriyat Conference on Monday, and also lack of enthusiasm among the people about Pakistan.

In a wider perspective, perhaps she had on her mind Pakistan’s isolation on Kashmir, as no country, barring Turkey and Malaysia, supported Islamabad after Delhi scrapped the special status of J&K and bifurcated it into two Union territories.

A couple of days ago, Imran Khan said he had approached the United Nations Secretary General and other world leaders to urge India to stop the issuance of domicile certificates in Kashmir.

Maybe his efforts are floundering, and Sherry Rehman is hinting at that, too.

Major General Babar Iftikhar, Director General of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations. Twitter

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, July 3

A militant accused of being involved in a recent shooting incident that left a six-year-old boy and a CRPF jawan dead in south Kashmir was killed in an encounter that raged between security forces and militants on the city outskirts on Thursday night, police said.

A Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel was also killed in the gunfight.

They said the gunfight broke out at Malbagh area at around 10.30 pm when joint teams of police and CRPF launched a cordon and search operation following an input about the presence of militants.

“As security forces cordoned the area, the hiding militants fired upon them. The fire was retaliated, triggering an encounter. In the gunfight a militant was killed and a CRPF jawan of Quick Action Team of the force was critically wounded,” a security official said.

The injured head constable was evacuated to Army’s 92 base hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

The CRPF jawan was identified as Kuldeep Urwan, 38, from Jharkhand.

Inspector General of Police, Kashmir Vijay Kumar, identified the slain militant as Zahid Daas of ISJK.

“He was involved in the recent killing of a CRPF man at Bijbehara in Anantnag and a six-year-old boy. It is a big success for JKP and CRPF,” Kumar said.

On June 26, a CRPF man and a child were killed as militants attacked the security forces at Bijbehara. Soon after the attack police had also released a photo of Daas of ISJK and said an FIR was registered against the militant by name. The killing of the boy had triggered outrage in Kashmir.

Mumbai, July 2

For Lt Col Bharat Pannu, celebration after pedaling over 4,000 km on an indoor trainer to complete the Race Across America (RAAM) meant sleeping once again like normal people.

In cycling circles RAAM is considered to be one of the toughest races. The coronavirus outbreak this year forced the organisers to hold it ‘virtually’, where cyclists from across the world competed against each other on indoor trainers.

Unlike the more famous Tour de France which unfolds in stages, the clock is always ticking in RAAM, and a cyclist has to ration the sleep hours to finish the race in allotted time.

In normal RAAM cyclists are up against elements as they ride across the United States: desert heat, cold mountain passes, unpredictable winds.

In virtual race these were missing, but there were many other challenges, and the lack of experience of cycling for long hours indoors made it more difficult, said Col Pannu who finished the race on Sunday evening, after 12 days.

“In outdoor, you tend to swing your body more by coming out of the seat often. No such luxuries are available indoors because the cycle frame is mounted on a stand,” he told PTI while driving back to his base of Army aviation wing in Bengaluru from Pune where he raced.

`Team Pannu’ (every cyclist in RAAM has a support team) initially could not get his nutrition right. He was supposed to consume 250-300 calories in liquid form per hour, but on the third day they realized that Col Pannu had lost 4 kgs, which meant he was losing calories faster than he was consuming.

It forced them to double his intake to 450-500 calories per hour by including solid food.

“Our trainer set-up was in the drawing room, and I was continuously wolfing down omelets, daliya and khichdi prepared in the kitchen next door,” he said, thanking his seven-member crew who slept for only five hours a day.

He took his first sleep break—of just 90 minutes—after cycling for 38 hours. During the 12 days of race, he had only 11 sleep breaks of 90 or 180 minutes.

In the room where he raced, there were five screens including one showing simulated race route, fans to keep him cool and cameras to record his movements round the clock.

During the 12 days of racing, he was completely disconnected from the outside world. It was only after finishing the race that he learnt about 20 Indian soldiers dying in eastern Ladakh during a clash with Chinese troops.

According to Col Pannu, he stood third among 22 riders at the end of the race. Before him, only three Indian riders had finished the race in its over three-decade history.

Col Pannu had planned to participate in the last year’s RAAM, but he suffered a fracture during a practice ride in the US before the race and had to drop out.

“This success is unbelievable and I owe it to my dedicated team which has been with me for four years,” Col Pannu, who also raised money for underprivileged children through the race, said.

With the “vacation” over, he will be joining duty from Friday. The immediate priority, he says, is to recover from exhaustion. PTI

Washington, July 3

China under President Xi Jinping has stepped up its “aggressive” foreign policy towards India and “resisted” efforts to clarify the Line of Actual Control that prevented a lasting peace from being realised, according to a report released by a US Congress appointed commission.

The Army of India and China have been locked in a bitter standoff at multiple locations in eastern Ladakh for the past seven weeks and the tension escalated after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a violent clash in the Galwan Valley on June 15.

“Under General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Xi Jinping, Beijing has stepped up its aggressive foreign policy towards New Delhi. Since 2013, China has engaged in five major altercations with India along the Line of Actual Control (LAC),” said a brief issued by US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

“Beijing and New Delhi have signed a series of agreements and committed to confidence-building measures to stabilise their border, but China has resisted efforts to clarify the LAC, preventing a lasting peace from being realised,” said the report and was prepared at the request of the Commission to support its deliberations.

Authored by Will Green, a Policy Analyst on the Security and Foreign Affairs Team at the Commission, the report says the Chinese government is particularly fearful of India’s growing relationship with the United States and its allies and partners.

“The latest border clash is part of a broader pattern in which Beijing seeks to warn New Delhi against aligning with Washington,” it said.

After Xi assumed power in 2012, there was a significant increase in clashes, despite the fact that he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi several times and Beijing and New Delhi have agreed to a series of confidence-building mechanisms designed to mitigate tensions.

Prior to 2013, the last major border clash was in 1987. The 1950s and 1960s were a particularly tense period, culminating in 1962 with a war that left thousands of soldiers were killed on both sides, according to the records of China’s People’s Liberation Army, the report said.

“The 2020 skirmish is in line with Beijing’s increasingly assertive foreign policy. The clash came as Beijing was aggressively pressing its other expansive sovereignty claims in the Indo-Pacific region, such as over Taiwan and in the South and East China Seas,” it said.

China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in both the South China Sea and the East China Sea. Beijing has built up and militarised many of the islands and reefs it controls in the region. Both areas are stated to be rich in minerals, oil and other natural resources and are vital to global trade.

China claims almost all of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counter claims over the area.

Several weeks before the clash in the Galwan Valley, Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe called on Beijing to “use fighting to promote stability” as the country’s external security environment worsened, a potential indication of China’s intent to proactively initiate military tensions with its neighbours to project an image of strength, the report said. PTI

Tribune News Service

Jammu, July 3

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday reached Ladakh to assess the situation on the China border where a stand-off position is continuing for the past two months, in a surprise move to send a message of solidarity with the soldiers and people in Ladakh.

It is the Prime Minister’s first visit to Ladakh since early 2019. This time, the visit assumes significance as it is a direct on-the-ground message to the soldiers that the nation’s top leadership is with them.

Sources said the PM would assess the border situation.

The visit has come in less than three weeks after the June 15 clashes in Galwan Valley in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed.