Monthly Archives: August 2018

New Delhi, December 31

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed chargesheet against six for attack on Assam Rifles personnel in Manipur in 2017.

An NIA spokesperson said here on Tuesday, the agency had filed charges against three absconding persons — Koijam Ibochouba aka Sumo, Mayanglambam Siromani aka Kesper, Thokchom Ningthemba aka Ningthem Feiroijamba —before the Special NIA court in Imphal.

Chargesheet has also been filed against Laishram Priyokumar Meitei aka Amuthoi, Thangjam Achou aka Thangjam Achan and Chandam Tondon Singh aka Shileiba under several sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

The case relates to ambush on a road-opening party of the 4th Assam Rifles in Chandel district of Manipur on November 15, 2017 by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the Manipur Naga People’s Front (MNPF) activists.

Two Assam Rifles jawans were injured and one of them succumbed to injuries, later. Two terrorists were killed in the action. The spokesperson said the PLA and the MNPF conspired to wage war against the government and carried out the ambush. — IANS

New Delhi, January 1

The creation of the Department of Military Affairs and institutionalisation of the post of Chief of Defence Staff are momentous reforms, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday.

Congratulating General Bipin Rawat on his appointment as the country’s first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Modi said he is an outstanding officer who had served India with zeal.

New Delhi, January 1

The Congress on Wednesday apparently distanced itself from the critical remarks of party leaders Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Manish Tewari on the appointment of General Bipin Rawat as the Chief of Defence Staff, saying it does not oppose any step taken by the government to strengthen the security of the country.

Party spokesperson Sushmita Dev said actions speak louder than words and soon the country will know how the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) will work.

Commenting on it before that will not be right, she told reporters here.

Dev also refused to comment on Chowdhury and Tewari’s critical remarks on the appointment of CDS.

“But I would like to say that the decision of appointing chief of (defence) staff is of the government. We only expect that he (General Rawat) will fulfil his responsibilities as the chief of staff. Any step taken by the government to strengthen the security of the country, the Congress does not oppose that,” Dev said.

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari, in a series of tweets on Tuesday, had raised several questions over the appointment of Gen Bipin Rawat as the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), saying the government has started on a “wrong foot” on the issue.

He had also asked whether the country was headed on a portentous path.

“With great regret and fullest of responsibility may I say that the government has started on a very wrong foot with regard to CDS. Time alone unfortunately will reveal the implications of this decision,” Tewari had said on Twitter.

He had also asked why the appointment of a CDS is fraught with difficulties and ambiguities.

Chowdhury had also taken to Twitter to say, “At the end, Mr Rawat become the 1st Chief Of Defence Staff, government certainly taken all his performances into cognizance including his ideological predilection, Indian Army is an apolitical institution for which each & every Indian irrespective of caste, class, creed, community is proud of.”

“Let Mr Bipin Rawat Ji’s ideological predilection should not affect the apolitical institution of India, our ‘ARMY’,” the Congress’ leader in Lok Sabha had tweeted. — PTI

2 soldiers killed in gunbattle with infiltrators along LoC