http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/terror-attack-at-pathankot-airbase/178456.html
TERROR ATTACK AT
PATHANKOT AIRBASE
Two intruders
reported killed; policemen were kidnapped yesterday; NSG flown in
Tribune News Service
Pathankot, January 2
The Air Force
station at Pathankot was attacked by terrorists in the wee hours this morning.
Two Air Force personnel were reported killed at the station gate, while two of
the assailants were shot dead in the exchange of fire that was triggered. In
all there were four or five attackers at the site, though more were suspected
to have infiltrated from Pakistan.
Even as the National
Security Guard was being mobilised, the terrorists were believed to have been
contained in the domestic area of Pathankot Air Force Station; technical area
of the airbase was safe. No damage to Air Force assets was reported thus far.
The exchange of fire is still going on.
The attack comes
days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's unscheduled visit to Pakistan.
The intruders
wearing Army uniforms were suspected to have entered the Air Force premises
near the Chakki river in an official vehicle.
Helicopters were
also dispatched to the area for assistance in the operation, DIG (Border)
Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh told ANI.
A security alert was
sounded in the area earlier on Friday when an SP-rank officer reported that
five militants in Army fatigues and armed with rifles and grenades had abducted
him and two of his acquaintances from a Pathankot village near the international
border. He said he was set free an hour later, 35 km away.
The recovery of the
body of a 24-year-old, Ikagar Singh, from the kidnapping site had deepened the
mystery.
Former Gurdaspur SP
(Headquarters) Salwinder Singh, who was transferred two days ago as Assistant
Commandant, 75th Battalion, PAP complex, Jalandhar, told investigators that he,
Gurdaspur-based jeweller Rajesh Verma and his cook Mohan Lal were on their way
to a religious place in his car when they were kidnapped in Kolian village,
that is covered by the Narot Jaimal Singh police station.
He said that the
kidnappers threw him off the vehicle and slit Verma’s throat. Verma is
recuperating at a hospital in Pathankot. The other two were pushed out likewise
and the car, with a blue beacon, was abandoned near Tajpur village, he said.
Stunned, Additional
DGP (Law and Order) HS Dhillon, IG (Border) Lok Nath Angra, DIG Kunwar Vijay
Partap Singh and Gurdaspur and Pathankot SSPs Gurpreet Singh Toor and RK Bakshi
rushed to Pathankot.
“In the light of the Dinanagar
attacks, we are taking extra caution. The officer’s claims are being verified,”
said a senior officer.
After the incident, the BSF and
neighbouring police districts were put on high alert. Dhanpreet Kaur,
Hoshiarpur SSP, set up base at Mukerian, 30 km from Pathankot.
Gurdaspur and Pathankot police
teams had begun search operations. Salwinder Singh wass already facing charges
for breach of discipline. The Pathankot SSP said on receiving a call at 2.30 am
that militants had kidnapped an SP-rank officer in the Narot Jaimal Singh area,
he, DSP Kuldeep Singh and the Narot SHO started a search operation.
“At, 3.15 am, the control room
received another call that the SP and his car had been spotted near Tajpur
village following which we took the officer to Pathankot,” he said.
In a very similar attack on July
27, 2015, three terrorists had sprayed bullets on a bus and stormed a police
station in Dinanagar town in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district, killing seven
persons, including an SP, before they were gunned down during a daylong
operation.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/a-brief-stopover-may-lead-to-lasting-peace/178134.html
A brief stopover may
lead to lasting peace
The constant but
elusive factor in any India-Pakistan accident-prone Track I dialogue is how to
insulate the process from spoilers and make it outcome-oriented.
Prime Minister
Narendra Modi's drop-by diplomacy in Lahore has set a new paradigm in summitry:
doing away with sherpas. It is designed to catalyse the peace process, grounded
over ego and who sets the agenda. The argument over terrorism or Kashmir first
is not a new one, though this is the first time any Indian Government took a stand on terrorism first.
No one, though, has explained adequately how the India-Pakistan dialogue
process, stalled since the beheading of an Indian soldier on the LoC in January
2013, was revived in a matter of six days following the three-minute meeting
between Prime Ministers Modi and Sharif on the sidelines of the Climate Change
summit at Paris on November 30.
India was forced
into taking the initiative for restoring the dialogue process having cancelled
twice in full media glare, scheduled meetings first between Foreign Secretaries
and then the National Security Advisers (NSAs). The hurried ice-breaker at
Bangkok was imperative for enabling External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's
passage to Islamabad for the Heart of Asia conference on Afghanistan on
December 8 and 9. It was vital that
Swaraj attend the conference as Pakistan has invariably questioned New
Delhi's legitimacy as a stakeholder, saying it is not even a neighbour of
Afghanistan. The Pakistan army has apparently relented so long as New Delhi
confines its activities to economic and development programmes.
The security
situation has plummeted so rapidly in Afghanistan after the strategic debacle
at Konduz that US, in order to make a clean exit, is relying entirely on
Pakistan to restore the reconciliation process between Kabul and the Taliban.
On the sidelines of the Heart of Asia conference, US, Pakistan, China and
Afghanistan discussed the urgency of restoring the failed Murree talks of last
July. India has regularly pointed to the anomalies of the reconciliation
process, most significantly making it Pakistan-led and Pakistan-owned whereas
it should be Kabul-led and Kabul-owned. The emerging geostrategic battleground
is Afghanistan, where both US and China are clearly batting for Pakistan's
primacy not just in the reconciliation dialogue but also in a post-conflict
scenario. As Afghanistan is India's western strategic anchor, it has to hang in
and ensure the transformation process is not hogged by Islamabad. At the Heart
of Asia conference, Swaraj announced that India (after a decade of dithering)
had decided to strengthen Afghanistan's defence capabilities. Recent events in
Afghanistan, along with Narendra Modi's first visit to Kabul on Christmas Day,
his historic speech in Afghanistan's new Parliament built by India in which he
said we will not compete with Pakistan and
his touchdown at Lahore will help in accelerating the revival of the
India-Pakistan peace process.
Regardless of the
ungenerous remarks by sections of the media and government about Track II
institutions, it can be affirmed that these have played a substantive and
positive role in shaping decisions on normalisation of relations. They have by
and large kept pace with policy outcomes
and in the case of CBMs been way ahead of governments. Take the Friedrich Ebert
Stiftung-sponsored India-Pakistan dialogue: “How to Transform the Process,”
held at Bangkok in October 2015. This
dialogue started after the attack on Parliament and has continued
uninterrupted. The constant but elusive factor in any India-Pakistan
accident-prone Track I dialogue is how to insulate the process from spoilers
and make it outcome-oriented. No mechanism exists at Track I to ensure this.
Between 2004 and 2008, four-and-a-half rounds of the Composite Dialogue were
held, with the fifth round slated in Pakistan when 26/11 happened and dialogue
was stopped. In 2010, talks restarted as Resumed Dialogue and two-and-a-half
rounds were held till the beheading of an Indian soldier on the LoC in January
2013 again stopped the dialogue.
At the Bangkok Track
II dialogue, both sides focussed on the central issue of breaking the stalemate
over sequencing of talks and assuaging each country's core concerns over
terrorism and Kashmir and India's insistence on discussing terrorism first. The
Bangkok statement called for both core concerns to be discussed simultaneously,
even if optically they were sequential. While the dialogue process required a
changed narrative to transform the process, some of it should be back
channelled, it was recommended.
Following the Track
I at Bangkok on December 6, the
transformed dialogue process is named Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue. It
followed the principle of simultaneity and segregation and was back channel.
While terrorism is in a standalone basket overseen by NSAs, Kashmir and other
old and new issues are in the second basket, handled by Foreign Secretaries and
relevant government officials.
So far, it is a
win-win situation, resulting from one of the fastest transformative processes
in the history of India-Pakistan dialogue process. It is a pity that Afghanistan, which is
currently the pivotal issue which India had long sought to be added as the ninth
item on the Composite Dialogue, has not found a place in the Comprehensive
Bilateral Dialogue. New Delhi must try to have it included at the Foreign
Secretary talks on January 15-16, 2016 at Islamabad even if it requires to
be bracketed with Balochistan.
One reason for
optimism on the transformed dialogue process is that the Pakistan army is
believed to be on board. Almost no one in Pakistan is contradicting this
assumption which makes strategic sense, though Inter-Services Public Relations
is silent on the new arrangement. The appointment of Lt Gen (retired) Nasir
Khan Janjua, known to be General Raheel Sharif's man, as the new NSA is offered
as evidence that the army will not rock the boat. Red lines if any marked by
him will not be known anytime soon.
New Delhi has racked its brains over opening a
legitimate and democratic line to the Pakistan army. Whether this is a good
enough mechanism to help understand the thinking of the Pakistan army, only
time will tell. General Raheel Sharif is the ultimate arbiter of India-Pakistan
relations and after subduing terrorism in Pakistan, a hugely popular man.
'Thank you Raheel Sharif' posters adorn army cantonments. His veiled criticism
of the government failing to follow up with civilian sector reforms after the
success of his counter-terrorism drive drew this response: "The military
must remain within the ambit of the constitution". As an afterthought,
ISPR added: “General Sharif supports democracy unwaveringly”. Narendra Modi's
spectacular personal diplomacy has at once silenced the critics of his flawed
Pakistan policy. By his bold, courageous and impromptu Confidence-building
measure (CBM) at Lahore, he has raised expectations about his
neighbourhood-first policy, adding a local flavour: "Ab to yahaan aana
jaana rahega". He has taken a big risk that could go either way. Still 20
months were lost pursuing an illusory muscular policy.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/a-trimmed-r-day-parade-this-year/178369.html
A trimmed R-Day
Parade this year
Celebrations cut
short by 25 mins to break monotony, address security concerns
Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 1
This year’s Republic
Day Parade will be shorter by 25 minutes to address security concerns and break
the monotony of witnessing repetitive marching contingents of uniformed
personnel.
The parade, which
marks the country’s annual show of military might and cultural diversity, will
be 90 minutes long, down from 116 minutes in 2015. Even “Beating the Retreat”
on January 29 to mark the end of the Republic Day celebrations will see new
“fusion” music instead of the long tradition of only military music.
The march-past —
conducted down the Rajpath, New Delhi’s central vista at the India Gate — has
been trimmed in terms of number of marching contingents. The parade is
organised by the Ministry of Defence.
Officials said the
decision had been taken at the “highest level”. After a review of last year’s
parade, in which US President Barack Obama was the chief guest, it was felt the
march-past was too long, said senior officials today.
The authorities also
took into view the monotony of witnessing almost-identical marching contingents
and the security risk surrounding VVIPs, who remained seated for longer periods
out in the open.
Unlike previous
R-Day celebrations, all tableaux and music bands will be showcased for three
days — till January 29 — at the Red Fort. The bands will play at regular
intervals. Sources said the number of Army marching contingents had been
reduced from eight to six. Marching contingents of the Navy had also been
reduced. The IAF will put up a single marching contingent.
Unlike previous
years, veterans will also not march past the Rajpath this year. Instead, they
will ride in a truck-mounted tableau.
The six central
paramilitary forces will put up only three marching contingents instead of one
each. The flypast by the IAF, however, has been retained.
The Navy will
showcase its “Make in India” efforts by putting up models of under-production
indigenously made aircraft carrier INS Vikrant and submarine INS Kalvari.
The IAF will
showcase its “Humanitarian and Disaster Relief” activity during the year. The
force had last year rescued 14,000 people in different operations in Yemen,
Nepal and Chennai.
The Army will go out
with its theme “Marching ahead with Incredible India”. The bullet proof
enclosure this year will have a roof, unlike last year when dignitaries sat
through pouring rain. French President Francois Hollande will be the chief
guest this year.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/jammu-kashmir/two-army-men-arrested-for-extortion-in-kulgam/178243.html
Two Army men
arrested for extortion in Kulgam
Suhail A Shah
Anantnag, January 1
Four persons,
including two Army men, have been arrested in Kulgam district of south Kashmir
for allegedly extorting money on gun point while posing as Hizbul Mujahideen
militants.
The Army men have
been found involved in more than one case of extortion, the police said.
The police were
investigating an extortion complaint by a doctor from Khrewan village of the
district when the role of the two Army men came under scrutiny.
The accused soldiers
have been identified as Muhammad Yousuf Teli and Muhammad Rafiq Khanday of
Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry. They are presently posted with the 19
Rashtriya Rifles camp in the Larkipora area of Kulgam district.
The police said the
accused Army men were the residents of the district.
According to police
report, an FIR (303-2015) under sections 34, 386 and 452 of the Ranbir Penal
Code was registered against the accused after an extortion complaint by Dr Bila
Beigh from the Khrewan Malpora area.
Dr Beigh told the
Tribune that two armed men, posing as Hizb militants, had held his family
hostage on Sunday evening and ransacked their house, before decamping with Rs
32,000 and some electronic gadgets.
“I was in Delhi when the
incident took place. My sister and her husband were at my place and they were
in deep shock,” Dr Beigh said.
Station House Officer (SHO),
Qazigund, Parvez Ahmad said it was Dr Beigh’s sister who had spotted one of the
accused at the Emergency Hospital in Qazigund, where she works as a senior
dental technician.
“The police swung into action
and arrested the identified man, who led us to his accomplice,” the SHO said.
The two were identified Muzaffar
Ahmad Bhat and Nisar Ahmad, he said.
While the police were
interrogating the arrested duo, one of Dr Beigh’s neighbours Muhammad Yousuf
Teeli approached him and confessed to have provided weapons to the accused duo.
“He pleaded for forgiveness and
was worried that he will be thrown out of the Army,” Dr Beigh said. “I,
however, informed the police regarding the incident and they picked up the
threads from there,” he said. The police questioned Teeli and subsequently
secured a confession from him of being involved in multiple extortion cases.
“He also led us to one of his accomplices. Both have been produced in court and
sent to remand,” the SHO said.
The police officer said the Army
men have also confessed to having carried out similar extortions across Kulgam
and in neighbouring Anantnag district.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/jammu-kashmir/govt-not-to-hand-over-bodies-of-foreign-militants-to-locals/178244.html
Govt not to hand
over bodies of foreign militants to locals
Azhar Qadri
Tribune News Service
Srinagar, January 1
To prevent people
from attending funerals of foreign militants, the state government has changed
the policy of handing over their bodies to locals and is instead burying them
in secrecy in a sparsely populated town near the Line of Control.
Two foreign
militants killed in December in south Kashmir were buried at a faraway
graveyard in a thinly populated frontier Uri town of north Kashmir as the
police feared breakdown of “law and order” at the funerals of the militants if
their bodies were handed over to locals.
A police officer in
Pulwama district, where a foreign militant was killed in an encounter this
week, said the body had been buried near Uri town. The officer said the
militant was not a local and handing over his body to locals would have caused
a “law and order problem”.
However, the body of
the second militant, a resident of Pulwama, was handed over to his family and
his funeral was attended by hundreds of locals. It was the second case in the
past month of a foreign militant being buried at the Uri graveyard.
Inspector General of
Police for Kashmir zone SJM Gillani said the bodies of the foreign militants
would no longer be handed over to locals of the district where they are killed.
“It is a decision taken to
ensure that there is peace in the area,” said Gillani.
The change in the policy comes
at a time when hundreds of residents — both men and women — attend the funerals
of local and foreign militants, which later turn into anti-India rallies.
In October, hundreds had
attended the funeral of Abu Qasim, a foreigner who headed the Lashkar-e-Toiba
in Kashmir and was one of the most-wanted militants in the region. He was
killed in a gunfight in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district. Qasim’s funeral was
one of the largest in the region in recent years.
The large attendance of locals
at the funerals of foreign militants has shown signs of a growing sympathy for
their cause in the region. Most districts, where a militant has died in the
past years, have also observed spontaneous shutdowns, which, in some cases,
continued for four days —- a traditional period of mourning.
There have also been instances
in recent years where villagers have forcibly taken possession of bodies of
foreign militants.
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-funds-spent-on-indian-army-can-be-utilised-to-uplift-people-mulayam-singh-yadav-2161413
Mulayam Singh Yadav
says India and Pakistan should not spend funds on their armies
Samajwadi Party
chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Friday said that massive funds being spent on the
armies of India and Pakistan could be used to improve the living standards of
people in both the countries.
"Massive funds
are being spent on the armies of India and Pakistan. This money can be utilised
for enhancing the living standards of the people in these two nations," he
said while addressing workers at the party headquarters in Lucknow.
"Renowned
socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia favoured world unity," he said.
"If humanity is
given importance in the world, there will be no atrocity or boundary dispute
and progress will get a new momentum," Yadav said.
Asking party workers
to take a resolve to ensure party's victory in the 2017 Assembly polls, Yadav
said the new year is important for the party and the government.
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