NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday appointed 22 parliamentarians as special envoys “for fighting the Kashmir cause in different parts of the world”.

“I am standing behind these special envoys to ensure their toil for highlighting the Kashmir cause resonates across the world so that I can shake the collective conscience of the international community during my address at the UN this September,” Sharif said in a statement.

The move marks an escalation in Pakistan’s ongoing row with India over the unrest in Kashmir following the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani.

Sharif said Pakistan will remind the United Nations of its long-held promise of “right selfdetermination for the Kashmiri people” and would make it clear to India that it was them that had approached the inter-governmental organisation several decades ago on Kashmir dispute, but are not fulfilling its promise.

“Generation after generation of Kashmiris have seen only broken pledges and ruthless oppression,” the prime minister added in his statement. Sharif added, “The Kashmir dispute is the most persistent failure of the United Nations; the UN must establish its relevance. We cannot relent from the Kashmir cause by any stretch of imagination.”

The parliamentarians who have been nominated to lobby for the Kashmir cause in various countries include Ejazul Haq, the son of former military strongman Ziaul Haq. The prime minister also nominated Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who heads his faction of the Jamat-ulem Islam (JUI) party, a right wing party.

His remarks came on the 50th day of violent protests in Kashmir. India has accused Pakistan of inciting violence in Kashmir and supporting cross-border terrorism.

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 25

As the India-Pakistan “war of letters” continues, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar has shot off another letter to his Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Choudhary.Sources in the government confirm that in the letter, Jaishankar has made it clear to Pakistan that the India-Pakistan talks should focus on terror emanating from Pakistan to India and to the region.The letter is India’s response to Choudhary’s August 19 invitation to Jaishankar, asking him to travel to Islamabad and discuss the current situation in Jammu and Kashmir. Sources said the letter was handed over by Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale to Choudhary yesterday in Islamabad.Sources said the Foreign Secretary, in the letter, has pressed upon Islamabad once again for the need to move out of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Sources add that India has upped the ante this time with the Foreign Secretary raising the issue of terror emanating from Pakistani soil and targeting not just India but also the region. It is learnt that the decision on whether Jaishankar would travel to Pakistan at the end of the month would be determined once Pakistan responds to the latest letter.India-Pakistan relations show no signs of improvement with Kashmir having emerged as the main issue. The dialogue process has been in a state of suspension since the January Pathankot attacks and the recent exchange of letters between the two Foreign Secretaries is an effort to create ground for talks.

Visit to Islamabad may depend on Pak reply

• The letter is India’s response to Pakistani Foreign Secretary Aizaz Choudhary’s August 19 invitation to S Jaishankar, asking him to travel to Islamabad and discuss the situation in J&K
• It is learnt that the decision on if Jaishankar would travel to Pakistan at the end of the month will be determined once Pakistan responds to the letter

The plane with 29 persons on board went missing shortly after taking off from Chennai for Port Blair on July 22. Reuters file photo

New Delhi, August 22

A month since it went off radar en route Port Blair, the search for the missing AN-32 aircraft of Indian Air Force continues without any concrete evidence about the fate of the aircraft.

Meanwhile, as Geological Survey of India ship Samudra Ratnakar found some leads at a depth of around 3,000 meters, officials said it was not clear if it was the debris of the aircraft.

“The ship has tracked some echoes from the seabed but it will be a long process to verify if there is any debris belonging to the AN-32,” IAF spokesperson Wing Commander Anupam Banerjee told IANS.

According to the Geological Survey of India, the Samudra Ratnakar, which was part of the search operation, had detected some linear pieces.

A GSI official said the objects, around 200 to 300 nautical miles from Chennai, could even be rocks on the sea bed.

Indian Navy Spokesperson Captain D.K. Sharma said: “The search for AN-32 is in progress in right earnest.”  Sharma added that there were no concrete leads.

A month on, the search is being carried on with two Indian Navy and one Coast Guard ship for scanning the surface of the sea.

National Institute of Ocean Technology’s vessel, Sagar Nidhi, and Samudra Ratnakar are carrying on the sub-surface search, while aerial survey is being carried out by surveillance aircraft P8I, transport aircraft C130J Super Hercules and Coast Guard’s Dorniers.

The plane with 29 people on board went missing shortly after taking off from Chennai for Port Blair on July 22.

The recorded transcript of air traffic radar showed the last pick up of the aircraft was 151 nautical miles east of Chennai when it took a left turn with rapid loss of height from 23,000 feet.

A flotilla of Naval and Coast Guard ships and aircraft were deployed on the search operations hours after the aircraft went off radar.

Data from Indian satellites was scanned and help was also sought from other countries to locate the missing aircraft.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, in a detailed statement made in parliament, also clarified that the aircraft, an upgraded version of IAF’s workhorse, had “adequate lifetime” and had undergone just one overhaul. — IANS

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Ashok Chakra: Hav Hangpan Dada

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 14

President Pranab Mukherjee today approved 82 gallantry awards for armed forces personnel and members of the paramilitary forces. These included one Ashok Chakra, 14 Shaurya Chakras, 63 Sena Medals (Gallantry), two Nao Sena Medals (Gallantry) and two Vayu Sena Medals (Gallantry).Havildar Hangpan Dada of Assam Regiment, who killed four intruding terrorists before laying down his life at a height of 13,000 feet in the harsh Himalayan terrain of North Kashmir on May 26, was awarded the Ashok Chakra, the highest peacetime gallantry award.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)Eight Army men from the Northern Command got the Shaurya Chakra, the third highest award for gallantry during peacetime. Five of them got this award posthumously, a Ministry of Defence statement said.Hangpan Dada laid down his life as he led a charge on hiding terrorists in Naugam (Jammu and Kashmir), resulting in neutralisation of four. Taking the enemy head-on, Dada killed two of them on the spot and the third one after a hand-to-hand scuffle as they slid down the hill towards the LoC. A fourth terrorist was also killed by him.Lt Col EK Niranjan, who lost his life during the Pathankot airbase attack, was among those awarded the Shaurya Chakra. He was attached to the National Security Guard and was part of their bomb-disposal squad.Captain Pawan Kumar and  Captain Tushar Mahajan of 9 Para Special Forces, who lost their lives during the Pampore attack, were awarded gallantry medals.

Commendation for NSG dog ‘Rocket’

• NSG dog “Rocket”, who burnt its paws while scouring for terrorists in a burning billet during the Pathankot IAF base attack, has been awarded the Chief of Army Staff commendation for courage and obedience to command. The two-and-a-half-year-old Belgian Malinois is a soldier of the K9 unit based at Manesar. PTI

I RECALL the days when, as a young man, I was carefree. Today, I see those days as the wheel of fate that turned for me.My first posting, in 1963, was to a field unit in the East. The long journey from Secunderabad to NEFA, first by train and then by road, was not eventful, as most of the time I was concerned about the safety of my personal weapon, a Sten gun, which was an essential inventory of an Army officer posted in the East then. My unit had two young officers like me and was commanded by a Major. Except for the Officer Commanding (OC), who had his basha near the Officer’s Mess at the foot of a hillock, the rest of us were put up on the hilltop. Young officers consider their first posting as a two-year ‘honeymoon’ which they try to make the best of. One evening, a friend was waiting for me in my basha so we could go for an exciting outing we had planned days earlier. After some aborted attempts to tie the turban, I, abetted by my friend, was convinced that the only way I could leave on time for any engagement was to change my head-gear permanently and start wearing the jungle hat. The next morning, the OC did not recognise me at the breakfast table and when he learnt from others about the change of my identity, he asked me in a stern voice to report immediately to him in his office. In the Army, any change in identity is possible only after taking prior permission from the higher authorities. Furious, the OC ordered me to get back to the original me as early as possible, failing which disciplinary action would be initiated against me. There was no way I could obey his order, and so, after a few days, I was handed a confidential envelope containing a show-cause notice. Though it scared me, I did not understand the gravity of the situation and wrote back, well before the deadline, to be forgiven for the mistake committed. Two days passed off peacefully, during which the OC did not interact with me, except nodding in response to formal greetings. However, the very next day, I learnt that I would be marched to the Commander (a Lt Col) for necessary action. It came as a bolt from the blue. In those days, the gap between a barsati Captain (which I was) and a Lt Col was very wide. After interviewing me, the Commander thought it a fit case to be forwarded to the higher authorities, in this case, the Corps HQ.When I reached the Corps HQ on the fateful day, I felt as if everyone there had come to know of my misconduct and were looking at me with contemptuous amusement. I was marched to a Brigadier who barked a few unprintable, harmless abuses and dismissed me in just a minute or so. I later learnt that immediately after dealing with me, he called the Lt Col who was waiting in the next room and admonished him for not being able to handle the problem at his level. I felt happy to know that the Commander had received more dressing down than me! I applied for a new identity card and the matter was settled once for all. A few years later, I regained my identity due to another interesting turn of events.

New Delhi, August 1

The missing AN-32 aircraft, which had flown multiple times over the Bay of Bengal carrying military personnel and equipment, did not have an underwater locator system, making it difficult for the rescuers to pinpoint the position of the plane that went down over the sea with 29 persons on board on July 22. In fact, none of the upgraded AN32 aircraft, the main workhorse of the military, has an underwater locator, unlike the modern transport planes such as C130J or C17.This means the search and rescue team has no idea where the plane is. The search, which entered the 11th day today, is being carried taking into account the last contact point of the aircraft before it disappeared. “We are using sonars of submarine, ships and other naval assets to locate the aircraft. There is no signal available to track the missing aircraft,” a defence source said, adding the search would continue.The missing aircraft came with two Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT)—a stationary ARTEX C406-1 ELT manufactured by ACR Electronics/Artex Products, the US, and a French-made portable KANNAD 406AS ELT manufactured by Orolia. In emergency, the pilot has to activate the ELT beacon manually. The integrated ELT gets activated when the impact is about 2.3 G or 4.5 feet per second.However, ELT would not get activated automatically since radio waves are not transmitted in water. “There is no signal from ELT under water for this reason,” IAF sources said.Trials were already on to procure underwater ELTs for the aircraft and, as an emergency measure, effort is to have some kind of an underwater ELT on any aircraft that flies over water.Also, the AN-32 aircraft does not have the Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast. This system relies on navigational satellites to automatically transmit an aircraft’s journey in real time and it can be switched on and off based on operational needs.Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had said as per the standard operating procedures started at 1230 hours, one hour after the scheduled arrival at Port Blair and nearly three-and-a-half hours after the plane went out of ground radar cover area. It was only at 1225 hours that Maritime Rescue and Coordination Centre, Chennai, reported that an IAF AN-32 (AF-330) was not in contact. The weather at the time when the plane went missing was overcast with multi-layered clouds and embedded convection. — PTI

PHILADELPHIA (US): An IndianAmerican Sikh, Major Kamaljeet Singh Kalsi, stood out in his pink turban among a group of US military veterans who took the stage at the Democratic National Convention, to root for Hillary Clinton as the party’s presidential nominee on Thursday night.

NYT PHOTOIndian-American Sikh, Major Kamaljeet Singh Kalsi, seen on the stage as Gen John Allen (retd) speaks on the final day of the Democratic National Convention at Philadelphia in the US.

Kalsi was accompanying General John Allen (retired) along with a group of military veterans at the Wells Fargo Centre in Philadelphia. Standing behind Allen, as he spoke, Major Kalsi’s pink turban grabbed eyeballs.

Allen said under Hillary the country will not “abandon the world”, and pursue enemies, defeat the Islamic State and stop the spread of nuclear weapons.

Kalsi, an emergency room doctor, served 15 years in the US Army, and earned a Bronze Star in Afghanistan for his meritorious service in combat zone. There he had treated many victims of improvised explosive devices, the crude home-made bombs.

Raised in New Jersey, Kalsi became the first Sikh in the US military to receive permission to wear a beard and turban in 2009. He had to wage a two-year campaign that resulted in the army granting him a special exception, the first such to a policy established in 1980s.

Kalsi left active duty in 2013, and started a campaign to challenge the strict grooming policy that he believes has blocked hundreds of Sikhs from joining the military.

(With inputs from NYT)

The very fact that the military is called upon to join is an admission that the situation is extraordinary. It is well outside the capabilities of the state and central police to manage. An area or a state has to be first declared as a “disturbed area” and only then can AFSPA be brought in.

Members of the Jammu and Kashmir RTI Movement hold a signature campaign for repealing the Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) at Lal Chowk, Srinagar. PTI

Counter-insurgency operations are a messy affair. There are no definite, lines, modes and structures that determine the scope and specificity of scales of operations by the military in dealing with them. Every situation has its own peculiarities and operating environment. Therefore, no same set of rules and methods can be applied in every case, though caution and restraint should be a constant factor in such operations.  What needs to be borne in mind is that the overall environments in which these operations are conducted are generally hostile towards the security forces and people’s sympathy is invariably with the insurgents.

Disenchantment of the people

Insurgencies have their roots in the disenchantment of the people with the prevailing socio-politico-economic environment in a given area. Such conditions impel some to take up arms where sympathy and support of the local population of the area invariably follows. In such an environment, intelligence sources for counter-insurgency operations are few and under the constant threat of elimination. Unless the root causes for emergence and sustenance are addressed, insurgencies, tend to go on with their usual ups and owns, depending on counter-insurgency resources deployed to counter them and the successes they achieve. In other words, the alienation of large sections of the population is both the cause as well as the life-support system of insurgencies. These may be indigenous or foreign inspired and supported.The Army at best can create an environment for a period of time for the politico-socio-economic steps to be initiated rapidly and purposefully implemented, so as to limit, if not completely remove, the grounds for alienation. During such windows of opportunities general administration too must act and together with politico-economic efforts seriously attempt to remove the root causes of disaffection.  Unfortunately, our long experience, both in Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East has been contrary to such expectations. Consequently, insurgencies have persisted and counter-insurgency operations and AFSPA have been continuing. Although a plethora of police organisations are available to the government, it is due to their failure to contain insurgency on their own that the Army is called in. The very fact that the military is called upon to join is an admission that the situation is extraordinary and well outside the capacity and capabilities of the state and central police to manage.  An area/state has to be first declared as a “disturbed area,” and only then can AFSPA be brought in. Military when called in to aid to civil administration, even to deal with law-and-order situations, is not bestowed with any legal or police powers. The magistrate has to be at hand for a military detachment to engage with or fire on an unruly crowd or a lawless group indulging in arson and looting. In the absence of AFSPA and during counter-insurgency operations, a magistrate would be required to give written permission to the military to resort to firing.  If the military were to engage terrorists without AFSPA, every incident may call for judicial inquiry and with a hostile population, motivated evidence will invariably pile up against the military.  Troops will be demotivated and may even turn a Nelson’s eye in their hunt for terrorists. No soldier would like to do the rounds of civil courts for a decade and more. The Supreme Court has rightly opined that indefinite continuation of AFSPA negates and mocks our democratic process and symbolises the failure of civil administration.  The judges have further observed that ordinarily our armed forces should not be used against our countrymen and women and that every person carrying a weapon in a disturbed area cannot be labelled as a terrorist or an insurgent and be killed without any inquiry!  My Lords, the situation in insurgency areas is very often such that it is impossible to tell an insurgent from a peaceful citizen, more so, if he is carrying a weapon in certain restricted areas. On many an occasion for a soldier it is either kill or get killed. Undoubtedly, due care and restraint must be exercised in the counter-insurgency operation, so as to avoid collateral damage in way of death or injury to innocent men. However, there are occasions when unavoidable collateral damage does take place, in spite of best of precautions. Very often, collateral damage is inflicted by the terrorists, knowing full well that the blame for such damage will invariably rest with the Army. While situation and causes for insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East are quite apart, a common thread runs when it comes to accusing the military for fake encounters and extra-judicial killings. It may be recalled that there was much media hype and engineered public outcry at the alleged rape and killing of Manorama by the Assam Rifles personnel.  Manorama was a terrorist and a PLA member, involved, over a period of two to three years in laying IEDs, leading to the death of six civilians and two Army men.  At the time of her arrest, a transmitter and a grenade were recovered from her. She was killed while trying to escape. Two separate and independent autopsies ruled out torture and rape. The nature of bullet injuries confirmed the escape story.  It is not to contend that there have been no fake encounters or extra-judicial killings, but it needs be stated that in all such cases military carries out its internal investigations to determine the truth. It may not be in the knowledge of the public and the media that well over a hundred court martials have been held where some senior officers too ended up behind bars.The point that needs consideration is that with more than enough central police is available to combat insurgency, in Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East, why seek deployment of the Army in these areas? Consequently, the government can do away with AFSPA. When an Army post or vehicles column is attacked by insurgents, they have the legal right to protect themselves and the government property. Central police deploys companies but rarely full battalions. While they do corner special allowances when deployed as companies, but their efficiency in this manner of deployment does suffer.   The writer is a defence analyst

Chennai/Visakhapatnam: As the arduous operation to trace the IAF’s missing AN-32 aircraft with 29 people on board stretched into the third day on Sunday, the search and rescue team sought satellite imagery to find any clue of the plane that lost contact over the Bay of Bengal. “There is no sign of the plane as yet,” a senior defence official said. At least 18 navy and coast guard ships, including a submarine and eight aircraft, are involved in the round-the-clock operation to search for the Port Blair-bound transport plane that went missing after it took off from the Tambaram air base near Chennai on July 22. PTI

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 24

Insisting on its right to comment on developments in Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan today said only people of the state could deliver a verdict on the future of Kashmir and not External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)Countering Swaraj’s statement that J&K belonged to India, Pakistan Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz said: “Such a verdict on the future of Kashmir can only be given by the people of Kashmir and not by the External Affairs Minister of India. This right has been promised to the people of Kashmir by the UN Security Council. It is high time that India allowed the people of Jammu & Kashmir to exercise this right through a free and fair UN-supervised plebiscite. Once the majority of the people of Kashmir have voted for joining either Pakistan or India, the whole world will accept this verdict of the Kashmiri people.”