http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20131206/main6.htm
A day after
war-talk, Pak bats for dialogue
Islamabad,
December 5
A day after
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s reported remarks on Kashmir created a
furore, Pakistan today said the issue should be resolved peacefully and through
"meaningful and substantive" talks.
Speaking at a
press conference, Foreign Office spokesman Aizaz Chaudhry also said the Siachen
glacier should be demilitarised and there should be disengagement of forces.
"We believe
the Kashmir issue should be resolved peacefully through talks for which we have
always urged the Indian government to engage with us in meaningful and
substantive talks. We also believe that Kashmiri leadership should be
associated with that resolution," Chaudhry said. Both sides should work on
addressing the mistrust that exists and divides them, he said.
A leading
Pakistani daily reported on Wednesday that Sharif had contended that the
Kashmir issue was a flashpoint that "can trigger a fourth war" with
India. His office later denied the statement. However, the daily today said it
was part of the statement issued by the Information Department at Muzaffarabad
in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Asked about Prime
Minister's statement that he would like to see "held-Kashmir free from the
Indian occupation", Chaudhry said, "Our position has been very clear.
Pakistan has always extended moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri
people and this is nothing new. At the same time, the Prime Minister has also
voiced his desire for peaceful and good neighbourly relations between India and
Pakistan. I think resolution of Kashmir issue would actually help that broader
objective."
On the proposed
‘great wall’ along the LoC, Chaudhry said there was an understanding that there
should be no construction within 500 metres of the LoC which should be
respected. — PTI
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20131206/nation.htm#3
Permanent COSC chief: The possibilities
Tribune News
Service
New Delhi,
December 5
A proposal to have
a four-star general to be the single-point contact for tri-services issues has
led to a flurry of activity in military circles.
At present, these
issues are handled by the Chairman of the Chief’s of Staff Committee (COSC). The
senior most among the three chief’s is appointed the COSC boss and has no fixed
tenure. The tenure is co-terminus with the retirement of the senior most chief.
While deciding on
the issue, the government will have to decide on the retirement age of the
permanent COSC chief. All three chiefs retire at the age of 62. To appoint a
soon-to-be-retiring chief would mean hiking the retirement age to 64 years to
allow him a substantial tenure.
In case NAK Browne
is appointed to the post, no seniority issue will crop up in the IAF. Air
Marshal Arup Raha has been designated as the next Air Chief. But in case
General Bikram Singh is appointed as the permanent COSC chief between January 1
and June 30, Lt General Anil Chait-the senior most Army Commander-may become
the Chief of Army Staff.
Rarely has the
government overlooked seniority while appointing chiefs of the three services.
Lt General Chait retires on June 30, 2014, and General Bikram Singh retires a
month later on July 31.
In case Gen Chait
becomes the Army Chief, Lt Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag, the Eastern Army
Commander-now inline to succeed General Bikram Singh-will lose out.
His appointment as
the Vice-Chief of the Army, replacing Lt Gen SK Singh-retiring on December 31,
2013-awaits government clearance.
Another
possibility is that of appointing the current Vice-Chief of Army Staff General
SK Singh to the post. He superannuates on December 31. Alternatively, Lt
General Chait can also be the COSC chief.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20131206/nation.htm#4
Court martial cases become a casualty to AFT
workload
Vijay Mohan
Tribune News
Service
Chandigarh,
December 5
Heavy workload due
to a large number of service and pension-related matters as well as increasing
litigation arising out of non-implementation of judicial orders has resulted in
the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) being unable to give due attention to the
review of verdicts passed by courts martial.
“We have been able to dispose
of only 10-20 per cent of cases relating to courts martial and over 400 such
cases are still pending,” said Lt Gen HS Panag, who completed his tenure as the
administrative member of the AFT’s Chandigarh Bench yesterday. “Given the
enhanced powers of the AFT to review evidence, court martial proceedings have
to be looked at in totality, but given the volume of other cases, and at times
non-availability of a judicial member, this arena has suffered,” he added.
Courts martial are an
essential feature of military law and remain the bedrock for enforcing
discipline in the forces. Akin to a sessions court, there are several types of
courts martial, which have the power to award punishments ranging up to death
sentence.
At present, there are about
9,000 cases pending before the Chandigarh Bench out of which about 3,000 alone
are for seeking the execution by the Defence Ministry of earlier orders passed
by the AFT.
“Execution of orders is an
attitudinal problem in the bureaucracy. Not only is there functional lethargy
and a shortage of staff vis-Ã -vis the increasing litigation, but the ministry
needs to revise and update procedures and revamp policies to ensure that the
ends of natural justice are met,” he said.
While the formation of the AFT
has been a boon to ex-servicemen and a number of far-reaching verdicts have
been passed, General Panag said there were still some grey areas in the AFT’s
functioning and other related grievances that needed to be redressed.
For example, the AFT is the
only tribunal in the country without powers of civil contempt. Consequently no
action is taken by the executive on detailed or unprecedented orders, leading
to another round of litigation.
General Panag also came down
hard on the military system of dispensing justice. “The existing system, that
is cumbersome and duplicitous, needs to be reformed. Investigations are not
carried out properly and officers tend to give short slip to procedures or
ignore prescribed rules,” he said.
Stating that the Judge
Advocate General’s Department and the Military Police should be revamped as its
members lack legal experience and investigative skills, he said though the
military justice system needs to be tough to ensure discipline, it should be
judicious and transparent.
“At present, it does not meet
the standards of the law of the land,” he added.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20131206/edit.htm#1
War of words
Sharif must show
restraint
Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif says: “Kashmir is a flashpoint and it can trigger a fourth war
with India.” The statement is published and the Pakistan Prime Minister’s
Office disavows it. In the meanwhile, there is a reaction all over the world to
this ill-considered comment. In India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says there
is no scope of Pakistan winning a war against India in his lifetime. There is a
sneaking suspicion that the statements are for domestic consumption, yet they
have immediate cross-border reactions.
You could well be
pardoned if you felt a sense of déjà vu. Didn't something similar happen in New
York? The infamous “dehati aurat” comment, allegedly made by Pakistan’s Prime
Minister, was later disowned. The heated diplomatic damage control efforts were
a good enough indication of the harm the loose comment had caused. Senior
leaders, especially heads of government, need to be extremely careful about
what they say and do. Nawaz Sharif has always maintained that he wants to have
good relations with India, something that his counterpart in India
reciprocates. It is creditable that both the leaders met in New York,
especially in the backdrop of the incursions and killings that had occurred in
Kashmir. However, much was lost with a single loose comment.
It is simply not
fruitful to talk of another war when both India and Pakistan are attempting to
initiate peaceful interaction with each other, be it in business, cultural
exchanges or on the sports fields. Trade ties are an important aspect of
improving relations. Overland trade between the two countries, while miniscule,
is continuing and has an enormous potential. Peace would benefit both nations,
yet there are groups within them that oppose the normalisation of relations
between the two. They benefit the most when rhetoric is ratcheted up. Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif must keep that in mind. While it might be understandable,
if disappointing, that he has not been able to walk the talk about improving
relations with India, it is difficult to understand why he can't even talk the
talk.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-12-04/edit-page/44755862_1_pakistan-army-new-army-chief-general-bikram-singh
India must engage
Pakistan's new army chief directly since he will have the last word on foreign
policy
While General
Raheel Sharif has been appointed Pakistan's chief of army staff (COAS) on
November 29 by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, he is not dependent on him because
he will draw his strength from three different sources: his relations with nine
corps commanders, his firm hold over Pakistan's nuclear weapons and how well he
manages to retain friendly terrorist groups co-opted in his war plans against
India.
Terrorists groups
like Laskhar, Jaish and Hizbul are what General Musharraf had once called the
Pakistan army's first line of defence (read, offence). Thus, the prime minister
and his COAS will not necessarily be on the same page regarding Pakistan's
national security and foreign policy.
Sharif's maturity
will lie in how he handles the newly created 'cabinet committee on national
security' (CCNS) which he heads with the COAS as a member. A lesson that he
would have learnt is that having a majority in parliament does not impress his
country's army.
Had he listened to
General Jehangir Karamat in 1998 and formed the CCNS then to accord a formal
role to the army in governance, he would not have been overthrown by General
Musharraf.
Therefore, while
Sharif will at best be a notional chair of the CCNS, it is his COAS who will
have the last word on Pakistan's relations with India, the US and China. So,
the Kashmir issue will continue to get higher priority over bilateral trade
that Sharif desires. This is what New Delhi needs to grasp.
Like the US and
China, India should attempt to open a direct and parallel channel of talks,
whether Nawaz Sharif likes it or not, with General Sharif. The subject to begin
with could be Afghanistan where India, much to the Pakistan army's
discomfiture, is seeking a foothold post-2014 when American and Nato forces are
scheduled to leave the country.
India could ask
the US to arrange these bilateral talks specific to Afghanistan with the
Pakistan COAS. Meanwhile, talks between the director generals of military
operations for peace on the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, which have
been agreed by the two countries, should commence at the earliest.
For these reasons,
New Delhi should have asked General Bikram Singh to send a congratulatory
letter to General Sharif on his appointment as the COAS, something which has
unfortunately not been done. A thank-you note from General Sharif hopefully
would have set a positive tone between the two armies.
This is not all.
India needs to take two additional actions domestically to signal to General
Sharif that the sought rapprochement is not from a position of weakness. One,
there is the need to de-link ceasefire violations from both infiltration across
the LoC and bilateral talks between the civilian governments of the two
countries.
It should be clear
that dynamics on the LoC have little to do with relations with Pakistan; the
first is controlled by Rawalpindi and the second by Islamabad. And,
infiltration is a war-fighting strategy of the Pakistan army much in the same
way as counter-insurgency is of the Indian army.
Two, the Indian
army has to build a conventional deterrent capability at the LoC. This requires
an institutional change of mind-set, something that a defensively oriented army
is reluctant to do.
There are a few
interesting takeaways for India from General Sharif's professional profile. His
command and staff appointments against the Indian front have been exceptional,
he has done courses in the UK and Canada, and by the time he retires in October
2017, he will have a four-year tenure as COAS.
The general
appears more in the mould of his predecessor, the brainy General Karamat, rather
than the brawny General Abdul Waheed. It is hoped that he would be less brash
and opportunistic than General Musharraf, more balanced in developing
Pakistan's civil-military relations and open to level-headed negotiations.
India for him,
however, will remain the existential threat and Kashmir the prize to be won
with credit going mostly to his army. Therefore, his foremost priority would be
to negate Indian military's advantages, something General Kayani did with close
military ties with China and the induction of tactical nuclear weapons in the
inventory.
Another
significant marker in General Sharif's profile is his last tenure as head of
Pakistan army's doctrine and training evaluation. This would have given him a
good insight into the making and execution of irregular warfare against India.
Thus, India will
do well not to blame Islamabad for the excruciatingly slow progress on the
26/11 case for justice. There is little gainsaying that the 26/11 terrorist
attacks were the handiwork of ISI with full support and knowledge of
Rawalpindi.
To expect Nawaz
Sharif to deliver Hafiz Saeed or Dawood Ibrahim to India is akin to the US
asking Islamabad to hand over Mullah Omar to them. India should learn to
differentiate between Islamabad and Rawalpindi and not see the two Sharifs as
one.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/profile-achievements-and-failures-of-retiring-pak-army-chief-kayani/1200702/
Profile:
Achievements and failures of retiring Pak Army chief Kayani
Pakistan's hawkish
Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who did little to change the force's
India-centric stance, will leave the world's sixth-largest army grappling with
a host of security challenges when he steps down on Friday.
The 61-year-old
Kayani, the first spy master (he served as Director-General of ISI) to become
the army chief, will retire after an extended tenure that saw the Pakistani
military launch operations against some militant factions while leaving other
groups like the anti-India Lashkar-e-Taiba free to operate on the country's
soil.
It was during an
interaction with the Pakistani media in February 2010 that Kayani said his
force would remain an "India-centric" force till the Kashmir issue
and water disputes are resolved.
Though the army
did not block the previous Pakistan People's Party-led government's efforts to
normalise trade with India, many believe the force had a hand in scuttling the
move to give India Most Favoured Nation-status in December 2012.
Kayani is retiring
after heading the Pakistan Army for six years at a time when the country is
trying to cope with several security challenge, including a raging Taliban
insurgency and the impending drawdown of US and foreign troops from
neighbouring war-torn Afghanistan.
Known as a
chain-smoking man of few words, Kayani was once described by CIA officials in a
2008 New York Times article as a "master manipulator". His India
policy too has been difficult to comprehend, analysts say.
Though it was
under Kayani's watch that the Pakistani military made a paradigm shift and
described home-grown militancy as the "biggest threat" to national
security rather than India, critics say the jihadi tap was never shut off.
Pakistani soil
continued to be used for planning and staging terror attacks on India,
including the brazen Mumbai 2008 attacks that involved some serving and retired
officers of the Inter-Services Intelligence, which Kayani headed before
becoming army chief.
The latest
tensions on the Line of Control too were blamed on the Pakistani military's
efforts to give a push to the militancy in Jammu and Kashmir by backing
infiltration bids by militant groups like the LeT.
However, some in
Islamabad argue that Kayani, the son of a non-commissioned officer, was
interested in building ties with India and cite the example of his call for
demilitarising the Siachen glacier.
Last year, after
an avalanche on the world's highest battlefield buried 124 Pakistani soldiers
and 11 civilians, Kayani advocated peaceful coexistence with India and said
both countries should pull back their troops from the glacier.
With the Kargil
fiasco in mind, the Indian Army insisted on authentication of positions on the
Actual Ground Position Line on Siachen before any talk of demilitarisation or
withdrawal. People connected with the security establishment and analysts say
Kayani was 'hurt' when his proposal on Siachen was not actively pursued by
India.
Kayani's policy
for fighting the home-grown militants that he declared as the biggest threat to
Pakistan's security too has been slammed by his detractors.
Though he launched
a massive operation against the Taliban in the Swat valley after they advanced
to districts located 100 km from Islamabad in 2009, he repeatedly spurned US
requests to flush out the Haqqani network and other factions from North
Waziristan Agency.
Some have praised
Kayani for his efforts to distance the army from politics - soon after he was
named army chief by former President Pervez Musharraf in 2007, he recalled army
officers serving in civilian departments - but others point to his role in
confronting the government over issues like the Kerry-Lugar Act.
During Kayani's
tenure, the army criticised the Kerry-Lugar Act for attaching stringent
conditions for military aid from the US. The army also forced the PPP-led
government to drop moves to bring the ISI under civilian control and to send
the apy agency's chief to India for helping in the probe into the Mumbai
attacks.
Kayani is known to
be reclusive and, unlike his predecessor Musharraf, he stayed away from
elaborate media interactions. Kayani has been described by many as a soldier
with no political aspirations and this was one of the reasons why Musharraf
chose him.
He rose to
prominence after overseeing an investigation into attempts to assassinate
Musharraf in December 2003.
In his book 'In
the Line of Fire', Musharraf writes how the investigations initially ran into
problems because of inter-agency rivalries. "But these disappeared when I
appointed Kayani in charge of investigations," he wrote.
Observers believe
it was from this time onwards that Musharraf began to rely on Kayani for crisis
management and involved him in secret talks with former premier Benazir Bhutto
before her return to Pakistan from self-exile in 2007.
While critics
question him over the security situation in Pakistan, especially after the US
military raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad in 2011, his admirers
say he was the man who facilitated the country's first ever democratic
transition of government this year.
An infantry man,
Kayani got his start in the Baloch Regiment. He has also undergone training in
the US which helped him establish a good rapport with the American military leadership.
http://www.defensenews.com/article/20131118/DEFREG03/311180008/
Israel to Aid
India's Future Soldier Effort
Israel will
collaborate in producing high-tech systems for Indian soldiers, tapping a
potential US $3 billion market.
Israel will team with
India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to produce a
variety of systems related to command and control, battlefield management,
sensors and weapons, according to a proposal that was finalized last month.
An Indian Army
official said the Indian Futuristic Infantry Soldier As a System (F-INSAS)
program “aims to utilize advanced technologies to enhance capabilities of an
individual soldier.” F-INSAS “is based on lessons from conflicts worldwide and
intends to make the Indian soldier a self-contained fighting machine,” the
official said.
DRDO and Israel
have agreed to jointly develop portable command-and-control (C2) systems for
Indian soldiers. The system will have an encrypted computer and a monitor able
to operate in harsh Indian weather. The system will be connected with the
Indian Army’s battlefield management system, a network-centric warfare project
under development, said another Indian Army source.
The economic model
of the arrangement between DRDO and Israel is unclear, but an Indian Army
source said the C2 system must be able to grow over the years to accommodate
1.1 million Indian troops.
In addition, DRDO
is teaming up with Israel for joint development of an advanced mobile
observation system for infantry soldiers that will operate through a radio
frequency sensor, allowing a soldier to remain at a distance while observing
and recording a target.
DRDO has also
submitted a proposal to the Indian Defence Ministry to develop an advanced
personal network radio able to integrate voice; command, control,
communications and intelligence applications; and GPS signals. The system will
be connected to long-range radio networks to provide unprecedented operational
range. This system will be developed with Israeli help.
To meet Army requirements,
DRDO is also developing a multi-caliber individual weapon system and an air
bursting grenade for individual weapons.
Other equipment to
be procured includes advanced anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) launchers,
bulletproof vehicles, anti-materiel rifles, new generation carbines, battle
surveillance radars, thermal imaging sights for ATGM launchers, ground sensors,
secured communication systems, precision guided ammunition and laser
rangefinders.
http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2013/Dec/5/army-to-prosecute-soldiers-guilty-of-rights-abuses-65.asp
Army to prosecute
soldiers guilty of rights abuses
Srinagar, Dec 4:
Army on Wednesday said it would prosecute all those officials found guilty of
human rights violation in J&K and the sanction in this regard would be
accorded soon.
“I don’t want any such person
in the Indian Army who is found guilty of rights violation and any such
official, whosoever he may be, will be prosecuted. I will ensure that no
individual in the Army tramples the dignity of a civilian and this is a pledge
I am taking before you,” Commander 15 Corps, Lt Gen Gurmit Singh, said while
interacting with a group of editors here.
On Armed Forces Special Powers
Act (AFSPA), the Corps Commander said he has forwarded the opinion of Army to
the Defence Ministry and any decision has to be taken at the political level.
“Army has a role in
maintaining peace in Kashmir and it has been doing this at the cost of men and
material,” Gen Singh said.
Avoiding a direct reply on
Tosa Maidan Firing Range, he termed it a sensitive issue which needs to be
looked in a holistic manner.
“I can’t give you answer to
this query at this stage since the matter is of sensitive nature and Army is
looking at all the issues revolving around it,” he said.
Credited for focusing on
Army-civilian synergy, Lt Gen Gurmit Singh, who recently took over as Corps
Commander, said he works on the motto of harmonization of relations between
soldiers and civilians.
“I have individually met about
30000 soldiers in last four months since I took over as Corps Commander and the
motive behind this exercise is to make them understand the sensitivities of
Kashmiris- their dignity, honour, self-esteem and the role of soldiers in
respecting the rights of civilians,” he disclosed.
Elaborating, Lt Gen Gurmit
Singh said by adopting such a synergy on ground, Army is getting tremendous
feedback from civilians.
“The kind of information we
get at the local level is appreciable as could be envisaged from the inputs
from civilians on the militant network anywhere in Kashmir,” he said, adding
that the Handwara operation was started on local inputs.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/pakistan-army-warns-of-disproportionate-response-in-future-wars-with-india/article5422491.ece
Pakistan army
warns of ‘disproportionate response’ in future wars
Pakistan’s official Army Doctrine calls on the
country to “invoke disproportionate responses” in future wars with India, a
copy of the document obtained by TheHindu has revealed. “The causes of conflict
with the potential to escalate to the use of violence,” the classified internal
document states, “emanate from the unresolved issue of Kashmir, the violation
of treaty arrangements on sharing of natural resources, and the organised and
deliberate support by external powers to militant organisations.”
The December,
2011, Doctrine does not name any country as a threat, but Pakistan has accused
India of seeking to block its access to Indus waters, and backing terrorism.
The Doctrine describes itself as the “army’s mother document” and “the
fountainhead for all subordinate doctrines.”
Indian military
sources told TheHindu the study was commissioned in the summer of 2008, soon
after former chief of army staff General Pervez Kayani took office. It evolved
through intensive discussions of the Kargil war of 1999 and the near-war that
followed the December, 2001, terrorist attack on Parliament House
Georgetown
University scholar Dr. C. Christine, author of a forthcoming book, Fighting to
the End, says the Doctrine confirms what scholars have long known. “It tells us
several interesting things,” she says, “among them that the Pakistan army sees
Indian military modernisation as a threat, but that they also think nuclear
weapons will insulate them from the consequences of pursuing high-risk
strategies, like backing jihadist clients.”
Future wars, the
Doctrine states, “will be characterised by high-intensity, high-tempo operations
under a relatively transparent battle-space environment.” This, it states, is
because of the “incremental increase in asymmetry of conventional forces and
[the] nuclear overhang” — evident references to the programme of rapid
modernisation India put into place after the 2001-2002 crisis, and both
countries’ efforts to expand their nuclear weapons capabilities.
In the view of the
Doctrine’s authors, de-facto parity between the two countries induced “through
a combination of conventional and nuclear deterrence, has obviated the
[likelihood of] conventional war.”
However, the
Doctrine argues, “a disparity at the conventional plane continues to grow
disproportionately, which too disturbs the strategic equilibrium of the
region.” This, it states, “depletes peaceful diplomacy and dialogue, replacing
it with coercion on the upper planes and violence across the lower-ends of the
spectrum.”
“What worries Pakistan’s
army,” says the former Indian Army vice-chief, Arvinder Lamba, “is their
inability to organise offensive or defensive responses to our growing rapid
mobilisation capacity. Their challenge is to deter us from striking by
threatening nuclear weapons use in the face of the least provocation.
“India’s government and military
must seek perceptual clarity on exactly what we intend to do in the face of
such threats,” he said.
The Doctrine states that
Pakistan will use nuclear weapons “only as a last resort, given its scale and
scope of destruction.” Nuclear parity between India and Pakistan, it argues,
“does not accrue any substantial military advantage to either side, other than
maintaining the status quo.”
“In a nuclear deterrent
environment,” it adds, “war is unlikely to create decisive military or
political advantage.” However, it argues that “integration and synergy between
conventional and nuclear forces, maintaining both at an appropriate level…
[will avoid] an open-ended arms race.”
It does not state what the red
lines compelling nuclear weapons use might be, but says future strategic “force
development centres around developing and maintaining credible minimum
deterrence, based on a [land, sea and air] triad, including an assured
second-strike capability [to an Indian nuclear first-strike].”
“Lots of this thinking has
been operationalised in Pakistan’s military,” says Rana Banerjee, a New
Delhi-based expert on the Pakistan army, and former Research and Analysis Wing
official. “Basically, this document signals they intend to react to even
limited Indian military operations with disproportionate force, and hope fear
of escalation deters New Delhi from reacting to events like 26/11.
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