Villagers show mortar tailfins after Pakistani shelling on a village in the Jammu region. Tribune file Photo

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, November 14

Pakistan today resorted to firing and shelling at different places on the Line of Control (LoC) in Rajouri and Jammu districts. One soldier and a civilian were injured in the shelling that came after Pakistan officially confirmed that seven of its soldiers were killed in cross-border firing yesterday.The fresh shelling made authorities cancel all cultural programmes of the Jhiri Mela which started at the Kanachak area this morning.“As a precautionary measure, we have cancelled the cultural programme and Natrang play at Jhiri. Though there is no shelling in the Jhiri sector, we cannot take chances in view of the ceasefire violation in the Khour sector,” Jammu Deputy Commissioner Simranjit Singh said. A large number of devotees from all parts of north India, especially from Punjab, Haryana and Delhi, are attending the mela.Defence sources said the Pakistani troops started firing in the Pallanwalla area in the Akhnoor sub-division of Jammu district and the Sunderbani and Nowshera sectors of Rajouri district. The firing started at 2.40 pm and continued for two hours.Reports said Pakistan used 82 mm mortars and automatic guns at different locations along the LoC. The Indian troops gave a befitting response to the ceasefire violation.The Deputy Commissioner said a civilian, Mangat Ram, who is resident of Sainth village of the Khour area, was injured in the shelling.Reports said one para commando was injured in Pakistani firing at Khadi Khadmal on the LoC in Poonch district. He had reportedly been shifted to Army Hospital, Udhampur.The rise in shelling came after Inter-Services Public Relations of Pakistan today admitted that seven soldiers were killed on Sunday night in cross-border firing from across the LoC in the Bhimber sector. For the past over one month, violations of ceasefire have been going on unabated in the Nowshera area.The fresh shelling made authorities cancel all cultural programmes of the Jhiri Mela which started at the Kanachak area this morning.“As a precautionary measure, we have cancelled the cultural programme and Natrang play at Jhiri. Though there is no shelling in the Jhiri sector, we cannot take chances in view of the ceasefire violation in the Khour sector,” Jammu Deputy Commissioner Simranjit Singh said. A large number of devotees from all parts of north India, especially from Punjab, Haryana and Delhi, are attending the mela.On November 8, Pakistani troops had targeted Indian posts along the LoC in the area by opening fire and lobbing mortar shells. Indian troops had retaliated to it. There have been over 115 ceasefire violations along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir after the surgical strikes on September 29.The worst-ever Pakistani shelling targeting civil population took place on November 1 when eight persons, including two children and four women, were killed and 22 others injured along the International Border and the LoC in five sectors of J&K.

174 border schoolsto reopen today

• Despite fresh ceasefire violations on the LoC, the government on Monday ordered opening of 174 schools situated in the areas adjoining the International Border. Jammu DC Simranjit Singh on Monday ordered the reopening of schools in the border areas of Jammu from Tuesday. These schools were closed following the spike in tension between India and Pakistan post-September 29 surgical strikes in PoK.

Militant shot as Army fights off infiltrators in Nowgam

Srinagar, November 14

An unidentified militant was killed in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district as the Army foiled an infiltration attempt on Monday. The militant was killed in a gunfight that erupted this afternoon close to the Line of Control at Nowgam.“The gunfight erupted around 1 pm when a group of militants was intercepted by the Army when they were trying to sneak into the Valley. In the ongoing operation, one militant has been killed so far and one weapon has been recovered,” an Army officer said. The Army has deployed additional forces for combing the area, the officer added.Since the surgical strikes on September 29, this is the third infiltration bid foiled in the Nowgam sector. On October 6, four militants were killed in the sector.This is the second infiltration bid in the past five days. On November 10, the Army had foiled an infiltration bid at Rampur in Uri, killing an militant. This year there has been a spurt in infiltration. Official figures reveal that 87 militants infiltrated into Kashmir till September-end. Last year, 33 militants had infiltrated. — TNS

Brakes in funds flow make dent in Kashmir terror trail

Youths protest the civilian killings in Srinagar. Tribune file Photo

Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 14

There is an assessment by the security agencies that demonetisation has started impacting terror activities, especially in the Valley, where nearly Rs 3,000 crore of ‘hawala’ money in circulation is of “no use” now.Sources in the security establishment believe that the move would lead to a major shift in the terror infrastructure management and change the character and nature of terror funding in the country. They also claim that the four-month-long unrest in the Valley, sparked by the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani by security forces in July, is receding and expected to end as the cash inflow has halted.Intelligence inputs have always been there that politicians and separatist leaders are being funded through hawala transactions to fuel protests in the Valley, sources said.According to several estimates by agencies, Pakistan has been pumping in Rs 800-1,000 crore annually for the separatist groups alone.“30 per cent of this fund is paid to the beneficiaries in US dollars in bank accounts abroad. Half of the 70 per cent funds used to be paid in original currency and the remaining in fake Indian currency,” an intelligence official said.Between 2013 and 2016, 17 cases were registered and 37 persons were arrested in terror-funding cases in J&K, mostly in hawala and FICN cases, sources added.Intelligence officials said that lack of hawala money inflow would also hit the activities of the Maoists and other insurgent groups in the northeastern states.

Unrest receding

• Nearly Rs 3,000 crore of ‘hawala’ money in circulation is of “no use” now after the demonitisation
• The four-month unrest in the Valley is receding and expected to end as the cash inflow has halted

An Army jawan in camouflaged battle gear takes position near the Line of Control in Nowshera sector. PTI

Nowshera, October 11

For Army snipers donning camouflaged battle gear, “Dushman Shikaar, Hum Shikaari” is the duty mantra as they guard the highly sensitive Line of Control (LoC).Ply boards with “Dushman Shikaar, Hum Shikaari” written on them dot pine tree tops on the foot tracks of patrolling parties and border woods along the LoC.LoC snipers and soldiers, whose morale has gone up further post the surgical strikes on terrorist launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), are out to give a befitting reply to any ceasefire violation by Pakistan and foil terrorist infiltration and border action team (BAT) attack.Pointing to a ply card motto nailed to a pine tree on a foot patrolling track along the three-tier fence, Sniper Ram Singh (name changed) said, “The enemy sitting across the Lakshman Rekha (LoC) is my prey and I am his hunter. We work as per this motto for those daring to cross this Lakshman Rekha.”He and other snipers are highly trained and target-hitting soldiers meant to hit specific enemies daring to breach the LoC.Like snipers, the motto is no different for jawans and officers monitoring the forward post. They undertake foot patrolling along the LoC amid electronic surveillance put to guard the Indo-Pak border in the Nowshera sector of Rajouri district.The sector falls opposite the Bhimbher district of PoK, where heavily armed special forces hit terror launch pads in pre-dawn surgical strikes last month.The Nowshera sector with thick coniferous woods, deep valleys and rock-cut mountains is now a target of Pakistani soldiers post surgical strikes. It was once the biggest infiltration area as there were huge launch pads and terrorist training camps in the Bhimbher-Samahni-Nikyal belt across the LoC.“We are most vigilant along the LoC. We cannot keep the LoC out of manual and electronic sight even for a moment. We cannot trust Pakistani soldiers. They feel insulted following the surgical strikes,” said another soldier at the forward post.Showcasing electronic surveillance of the LoC, the company commander said, “We are keep a hawk eye on the LoC and forward posts and sensitive gaps on the border.”“Even the movement of a cat is watched now through electronic gadgets. We cannot afford to give a chance to them,” the officer said.Rocky mountain clips, dense forest lines and deep rock-cut valleys along the border are manned round-the-clock manually and electronically.“Apart from continuous observation from forward posts and electronic observation rooms, there is manual patrolling and three-tier lit-up fencing to guard against infiltration and cross LoC raids,” he said.Amid hostile weather conditions, the soldiers guard border posts and vow to safeguard the territorial boundaries at the cost of their lives.Undeterred by continuous mortar shell blasts and rattle of heavy machine guns at their posts last week, jawans brave bad weather and inhospitable terrain to keep a strict vigil on the LoC in Poonch.“Even during the recent heavily shelling and firing, we kept hawk eye vigilance on the LoC to foil any design of infiltration or any attack,” the officer said. The situation in the Poonch-Rajouri sector had deteriorated in the past week following the surgical strikes. — PTI

The defence minister has reopened the debate on India’s nuclear doctrine

As a Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar can say almost anything he wants in public. There is minimal collateral damage for the rest of the nation if everyone in Panaji takes leave of their senses. Unfortunately, this is not the case with a defence minister Manohar Parrikar. In this position he is one of the four senior-most Cabinet members and the one charged with the external security and defence of India. His words are carefully listened to and strongly influence the actions of a swathe of players, including the armed services, foreign governments and terrorist groups. Unfortunately, the person who seems to understand this the least is Mr Parrikar. His questioning of India’s long-standing nuclear doctrine on a public platform was avoidable. He effectively put a question mark over India’s nuclear deterrent, the sanctum sanctorum of the country’s national security posture. More worryingly, his “personal” comments seem to stem from an inadequate understanding of the strategic logic underpinning nuclear deterrence and a no-first-use policy.

In the dawn of the nuclear age, military strategists recognised that nuclear weapons changed the purpose of an army. A conventional arsenal is designed to defeat an enemy. A nuclear war would inflict such enormous damage on both sides that no one could win such a conflict. Therefore, the purpose of a nuclear arsenal was to prevent war. Thus was borne the concept of nuclear deterrent. To put it another way, one wins a nuclear conflict by never having it in the first place. Once this logic was understood, the next logical step was to signal this in a number of ways including no-first-use, developing the ability to carry out nuclear retaliation even after being attacked and, most important, maintaining the credibility of national intent through testing, technology and a iron-cast doctrine. A country can build all the warheads and delivery mechanisms it wants. But if there is evidence that it lacks the political will to actually use them, it encourages an enemy to carry out a first strike. The messaging of the political determination to retaliate, irrespective of the damage done in the first strike, is absolutely essential in ensuring the enemy attack never takes place at all.Whether in a personal or official capacity, for a defence minister to question India’s nuclear doctrine undermines the credibility of the country’s deterrent. Mr Parrikar, in other words, is inviting other countries to presume India is not certain how to use its final line of defence.

An Army officer pays tributes to martyr Gursewak Singh before his cremation in Tarn Taran’s Warana village on Monday. Tribune photo

Our Correspondent

Tarn Taran, November 7 Sepoy Gursewak Singh (24) of 22 Sikh, who was killed in Pakistani shelling in Jammu and Kashmir yesterday, was cremated today with state and military honours at his native village, Warana, in the district.Food and Civil Supply Minister Adaish Partap Singh Kairon, along with Army officers and officials of the district administration, was present. The Punjab Government announced ex gratia relief of Rs5 lakh for the family and a government job for Gursewak’s brother.He was to get married in February next year.The martyr’s body was brought to the village in an Army van. The pyre was lit by his father, Balwinder Singh. Nagoke village resident Gurmeet Kaur, who was engaged to Gursewak, attended the cremation.Col Subodh Gurung of the Mechanised Infantry, Deputy Commissioner BS Dhaliwal and SSP Manmohan Kumar Sharma were among those who laid wreaths on the body.Leaders of various political parties, including the SAD, the Congress, AAP and Aapna Punjab Party, also paid tributes to the martyr.

Islamabad, October 10

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz, has said that Pakistan wants de-escalation of tensions with India for the collective good of the entire region.Radio Pakistan quoted Aziz as saying in an interview that no progress was visible in the Pakistan-Indian relations until Narendra Modi was in power in New Delhi. However, Pakistan did not desire escalation of the situation, he added.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Pakistan would continue diplomatic efforts for improvement of ties with India, Aziz said.Asserting that Pakistan would never compromise on its principled stand on Kashmir, he said they would continue to extend political, moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiris struggling to get their absolute right to self-determination.Speaking on Afghanistan, Aziz said Pakistan would continue its reconciliatory role for bringing peace in the neighboring country. ANI

The face-off between the two sides continued for three days ending on Sunday evening. — Photo for representation only) Chinese and Indian troops were reported to have been locked in a stand off at the icy heights of Ladakh division. PTI file photo

Leh/New Delhi, November 6 Unfazed by the ‘sit-in’ by the Chinese border guards at Demchok in Ladakh that led to a face-off with Indian troops earlier this week, Army engineers have finished the work for laying a water pipeline for local villagers in Ladakh division.Chinese had pressed its People’s Armed Police Force (PAPF) personnel at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Demchok this time instead of usual PLA who came to erect a Fibre-Reinforced plastic (FRP) hut on Friday at the border but was not allowed by Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) troops, official sources said.The sources said while the face-off between the two sides continued for three days ending yesterday evening, the Army engineers, ignored the warnings by PAPF personnel and continued laying pipeline for nearly a kilometre for irrigation purpose of the villagers in Demchok, located 250 km east of Leh.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)According to the sources, the formula of ‘active patrolling’ adopted by the ITBP and army ever since 2013 fortnight long stand-off near Daulat Beig Oldie has been reaping rich dividends and Chinese have been cautious in carrying out incursion especially in Ladakh sector.This time also, the sources said, army and ITBP personnel did not allow the PAPF guards to erect the hut and they were forced to take the material back to their base camp located a kilometre away at Demqog from the place of face-off.The fresh incident had erupted on November 2 when Chinese troops took positions on the LAC and demanded that work be stopped as either side needs to take permission from each other before undertaking any construction work, a claim disputed by India which says that as per the agreement between the two countries, information about construction needed to be shared only if it was meant for defence purposes.Both sides pulled out banners and have been stationed on the ground, the sources said, adding the Army and ITBP troopers were not allowing the Chinese “to move an inch” ahead despite the PLA claiming that the area belonged to China.The area had witnessed a similar incident in 2014 after it was decided to construct a small irrigation canal at Nilung Nalla under the MNREGA scheme which had been a sore point with the Chinese.The PLA had mobilised villagers from Tashigong to pitch Rebos (tents) at Charding-Ninglung Nallah (CNN) Track Junction to protest Indian action. — PTI

Bulandshahr (UP), August 8The family of a soldier, who was killed while thwarting an infiltration bid in Kashmir, has refused to accept Rs 20 lakh compensation offered by the Uttar Pradesh government.Vishal Chaudhry (28), a resident of Randa village here, was one of two soldiers killed in the Army operation in Naugam sector of Kashmir’s Kupwara district that also left two militants dead.The cheque was delivered here yesterday after his last rites were performed, the family said. They demanded that the amount be raised to Rs 50 lakh and a government job be given to one of the family members.They also said that a petrol pump or a cooking gas agency should be allotted to his widow. However, Additional District Magistrate Arvind Pandey claimed that the family had accepted the cheque after he assured them of conveying their demands to the state government

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh on Friday submitted a memorandum to governor VP Singh Badnore, seeking the Centre’s intervention for providing justice to the family of retired soldier Ram Kishan Grewal who killed himself in protest against an unequal pension policy for military veterans.

Alleging total breakdown of democratic system in the country, Amarinder urged Badnore to convey to the central government his party’s concern over the brutal handling of the situation in the wake of 70-year-old’s suicide and demanded exemplary action against those guilty of harassing, detaining and beating up his family members.He was leading a 20-member delegation of Punjab Congress leaders and ex-servicemen.

Sealing the entire 3,323-km border will be anything but easy

Walled in: Politically, this could be interpreted as an admission of defeat.

A NEW strategy toward Pakistan, it was supposed to be auguring — our strikes on the LoC 10 days ago. The doctrine of ‘jaw for tooth’ by a ‘New India’ was supposed to compel Pakistan to realise India has a ‘different leader’. But fundamental questions remain unasked.Is such a strategy viable against a nuclear country? So far, the only doctrine of military strategy and national security policy that has been taken seriously is based on the theory of deterrence, which Pakistan has embraced, which presumes that the use of nuclear weapons would cause the complete annihilation of both the attacker and the defender.The doctrine is based on a kind of ‘Nash equilibrium’ — India and Pakistan are both assumed to know the equilibrium strategies of each other, and neither has anything to gain by changing one’s strategy unilaterally. The Indian policy makers are acutely conscious of this stunning reality. Ten days after the surgical strikes — military analysts increasingly feel comfortable calling it ‘surgical raids’ — it is clear that the government does not have any new strategy toward Pakistan. Home Minister Rajnath Singh announced on Friday that the new strategy means fencing the entire India-Pakistan border. The fellow travellers of the establishment in our strategic community can stand down.Rajnath Singh was very clear-headed. He even christened the strategy as the Border Security Grid. The entire 3,323-km border will be ‘completely sealed’ by December 2018 — six months ahead of the next parliamentary poll due in 2019. A time-bound action plan will be prepared. The progress of the work will be properly monitored on a monthly basis to avoid shoddy performance.Of course, some confusion still remains, which is understandable, given the mammoth challenge of implementation. For example, what about the stretches of riverine or low-lying marshy areas in Gujarat where erection of physical barriers is not feasible? Digital India could, perhaps, deploy ‘technology solutions’ such as cameras, sensors, radars, lasers, etc. Conceivably, Israel could be sub-contracted so that there won’t be any breakdown in technology.Even at the peak of insurgency in the 1990s, we never thought of such an impractical idea. Politically, this is an admission of total defeat. The government obviously seems to resign itself to the conclusion that Pakistan will continue to wage the asymmetric war, and doesn’t care two hoots as to who is at the helm of affairs in India and no matter India’s formidable national security czarism. Not only that, we seem to apprehend that Pakistan will now expand the asymmetric war from the Kashmir theatre and wage it in the marshes of Gujarat and the deserts of Rajasthan as well, in a deliberate thrust at the heartland of the BJP. The International Border (IB) has been traditionally peaceful, except in times of war.However, Rajnath Singh did not seem to be aware that India and Pakistan’s conduct on the IB is guided by the mutually agreed Border Ground Rules (1960-1961), which, although not signed, has been largely observed. This is a matrix of the code of conduct, which specifies the kind of structures that can be built along the IB — how tall the watchtowers could be, how deep inside they should be from the border, and so on. Evidently, the government is either ignorant of the Border Ground Rules or abandoning the framework altogether. There will be consequences. The point is, in the downstream of the Border Ground Rules a welter of confidence-building measures also was created, which has its practical uses.What is possible is that the government can fill in the gaps in the IB fence that runs through the states. In Rajasthan, the fence in Thar Desert gets impaired by shifting sand dunes. Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s idea of erecting a spiritual line of defence, Rashtra raksha yagna —employing 21 ‘patriotic Brahmins’ to chant mantras ‘to protect troops from the enemy’ — will not work. Giving such religious symbolism to utterly worldly things can only confuse people that the government is utterly helpless and has no alternative but to seek divine blessings to ward off the evil that is Pakistan. (It is appropriate that Rajnath Singh failed to show up at the ceremony at Shri Mateshwari Tanot Rai temple in Jaisalmer.)The big question remains: Can Pakistan be reduced to a law and order problem? There is an international dimension to India-Pakistan relations. And that dimension causes serious worry. Despite the brouhaha over cancellation of the SAARC summit in Islamabad following the PM’s decision to boycott it, Pakistan is far from “isolated”. The period since Uri attack testifies to the reality that none of the big powers — the US, China, Russia or the EU — will pay heed to the Indian demarche to ‘isolate’ Pakistan or impose sanctions on it as a state sponsoring terrorism.It will be a reality check to acquaint ourselves with the ‘strategic dialogue’ that Pakistan last week held with the EU. The joint statement issued after the meet in Brussels on October 4 agreed to develop a medium-term Strategic Engagement Plan between the sides. The Joint Communique stated: ‘The EU acknowledged the significant efforts by the government of Pakistan and the sacrifices made in the fight against terrorism and reaffirmed EU’s continued support… They also agreed to strengthen dialogue on defence matters… The Pakistan side apprised the EU about recent developments in the region, including the current situation in Kashmir. Noting with concern the recent developments, the EU side underlined the need for resolving disputes through dialogue and constructive engagement.’The birds are coming to roost. The government’s self-centred attempts to turn the country’s foreign policies into an exercise of self-glorification for the Prime Minister are back-firing. We stare at a two-year chronicle of wasted time in Indian diplomacy. On Thursday, the US state department spokesman John Kirby added to the usual mantra about the crucial importance of India-Pakistan engagement a pointed reminder that terrorism is ‘a common threat, a common challenge in the region’ and a cooperative approach is needed in tackling it effectively.Referring to the Kashmir issue, Kirby underscored the importance of ‘meaningful dialogue’. The writing on the wall is unambiguous. The international community is getting restive as regards our strikes and it intends to have a say on how two nuclear powers should sort out their problems, because they also happen to be vitiating international security as a whole.Fencing is not the solution. It may supplement the ‘muscular’ grandstanding by the Modi government. But it is about time the country gets real. Life is real.The writer is a former ambassador