Page 352 - War Conflict
J-K Police deputes cops for IED disposal training at TNC school
The Jammu and Kashmir Police has deputed its 14 member team to Tamil Nadu Commando school to get training for disposal of IEDs, senior police officer said Saturday. The four months training will conclude on December 8, he said. The team of policemen, which have been sent for training, includes 2 head constables, 5 special grade constables and 7 constables, he said. "Now IEDs are back in J-K. IEDs are the new threat. Last year there were very few IED incidents, but now they have reappeared," Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Director General Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar had said earlier. This year, there have already been 14 improvised explosive device (IED) incidents in Kashmir, besides seven instances wherein the devices were detected. On January 6 this year, four policemen on patrol duty were killed in an IED blast by militants in a market in Sopore township, the first major IED attack in Kashmir since 2015.
Hero of battle of Longewala dies
Brigadier Kuldip Singh Chandpuri (retd), who is known as the hero of the historic 1971 battle of Longewala, died Saturday in a private hospital in Mohali, his family said. He was 78. Brig Chandpuri was suffering from cancer, his family said. He is survived by his wife and three sons. Hindi film 'Border', in which actor Sunny Deol played the role of Brig Chandpuri, was also made in 1997 depicting the Indo-Pak war in Rajasthan. Brig Chandpuri was a Maha Vir Chakra awardee. The battle of Longewala(1971) was one of the first major engagements in the western sector during the Indo-Pak war of 1971, fought between assaulting Pakistani forces and Indian defenders at the Indian border post of Longewala in the Thar desert of Rajasthan. A company of the Indian Army's23rd battalion, Punjab Regiment, commanded by Maj Kuldip Singh Chandpuri, was left with the choice of either attempting to hold out until reinforced, or fleeing on foot from Pakistani force. Choosing the former, Chandpuri ensured ...
'Moscow summit first step towards peace in Afghanistan'
The meeting in Moscow last week, which saw the participation of a Taliban delegation and officials from nearly a dozen countries, was the first and positive step towards ensuring a long-lasting peace in Afghanistan, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai said.Karzai told Kazakhstan State TV on Friday that no representative from the Afghan government had participated in direct negotiations between the Taliban and US officials in Qatar. He also expressed hope that such meetings would break the ice in ending the decades-long war in the country, TOLOnews reported."In the peace talks in Moscow, which was the first time such a talk was taking place in a major regional capital of the world with the neighbours of Afghanistan all present there including from Kazakhstan and where delegations of the Taliban and delegations of the Afghan Peace Council sat together, the Afghan ambassador was there in that meeting, so, we see it as a positive step, a first step, that will definitely give us results ..
Five Filipino troops killed in ambush by Islamist gunmen
Militants have killed five Filipino soldiers and wounded 23 others in a major ambush by members of a notorious Islamist kidnap-for-ransom group, the Philippine military said Saturday. The soldiers were searching for hostages taken by the Abu Sayyaf group when the gunmen attacked them on the southern Philippine island of Jolo on Friday, regional military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Gerry Besana told reporters. "The effort is part of our mission to rescue the remaining hostages," Besana said. The Abu Sayyaf is a loose alliance of several hundred armed militants formed in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network. Friday's clash was one of the deadliest since an Abu Sayyaf faction joined other foreign and Filipino militants in seizing the southern Philippine city of Marawi last year, leading to a five-month battle that claimed more than 1,100 lives. The Abu Sayyaf is now believed to hold "less than 10" hostages, Besana said. The group is based in the strife-torn .
Three injured in grenade attack at Manipur Assembly complex
Three security personnel, including one BSF jawan, were injured after suspected militants carried out a grenade attack at the Manipur Assembly complex, the police said. The incident occurred at around 5.55 pm Friday near the sentry gate of the complex at the heart of the capital town, they told reporters here. All the injured, two private security personnel and the BSF jawan who hailed from Madhya Pradesh, were admitted to the RIMS hospital. They are stated to be out of danger, an attending doctor said. One unexploded grenade was recovered from the spot and was defused by bomb experts.
3 civilians abducted in J&K
Unidentified gunmen on Saturday abducted three civilians from Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district, police said.
An 'epic' on Indian soldiers in WWI (Book Review)
Book: The Indian Empire At War; Author: George Morton-Jack; Publisher: Little, Brown; Pages: 582; Price Rs 699
Migrants won't see armed US soldiers on border
As thousands of migrants in a caravan of Central American asylum-seekers converge on the doorstep of the United States, what they won't find are armed American soldiers standing guard. Instead they will see cranes installing towering panels of metal bars and troops wrapping concertina wire around barriers while military helicopters fly overhead, carrying border patrol agents to and from locations along the US-Mexico border. That's because US military troops are prohibited from carrying out law enforcement duties. What's more, the bulk of the troops are in Texas hundreds of miles away from the caravan that started arriving this week in Tijuana on Mexico's border with California after walking and hitching rides for the past month. Still, for many migrants the barriers and barbed wire were an imposing show of force. Angel Ulloa stood on Tijuana's beach where a wall of metal bars more than 20 feet high cut across the sand and plunged into the Pacific. He watched as crews on the US side ..
Voting begins in first phase of J&K panchayat polls
Polling began on Saturday for the first phase of the Jammu and Kashmir panchayat elections under tight security arrangements.
Almost 30,000 Afghan troops killed since 2015: Ghani
The death toll among Afghanistan's security forces is nearing 30,000 since the start of 2015, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has said, a figure far higher than anything previously acknowledged. Ghani appeared via video link this week at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, part of a university he once taught at as a professor of anthropology. Since the start of 2015, when local police and army units succeeded NATO as bearing responsibility for Afghanistan's security, "28,529 of our security forces have lost their lives and become martyrs for our freedom," Ghani said. In the same timeframe, 58 Americans have been killed, he said. "I would like to salute the patriotism of the Afghan security forces, every single one of whom is a volunteer," Ghani said. "We have no conscription, nobody is forced, and if there was not a patriotic impulse I don't think that people would sacrifice their lives for a pay of $200." The rate at which Afghan forces are dying ..
Bomb kills two, injures eight in Karachi
A bomb killed at least two people and wounded eight others in Pakistan's port city of Karachi Friday, police and hospital officials said. The blast reportedly damaged buildings and triggered panic in the densely populated Malir district. "A timed device planted underneath a pushcart exploded with a big bang, killing two people and wounding eight others," senior police official Irfan Ali Bahadur told AFP. Nobody has so far claimed responsibility but Karachi, the country's economic and commercial hub, has long been in the grip of militant, sectarian and ethic violence. Police cordoned off the area after the explosion and bomb disposal officials were called to the scene. Seemi Jamali, a senior doctor at Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre where the dead and wounded were brought, confirmed the toll and said two of the injured were in a critical condition. Violence in Pakistan has declined dramatically in recent years following a series of military operations along the northwestern border .
Police team attacked in Delhi
A vigilance team of outer district Delhi police was attacked with stones following a raid in Ranhola area during which it seized illicit liquor, police said Friday. The police team seized around six cartons of illicit liquor and relatives of those whose premises were raided pelted stoned at it, they said. Two police personnel sustained grievous injuries as they were hit with bricks, they added. A case has been registered in the matter and efforts are being made to nab the accused, the police said.
Jailed war criminal Mladic 'sends kisses' live on Serb TV
Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic, sentenced to life imprisonment for genocide, spoke live by telephone to a Serbian television channel from a Dutch jail Friday saying he was sending kisses, sparking outrage and increased monitoring from authorities. It was the first time Serbs have heard the voice of the man once dubbed the Butcher of Bosnia since he was convicted in November 2017 for war crimes and genocide. "Grandpa Ratko sends you kisses," the 75-year-old told the Happy commercial station. Mladic was found guilty notably over the 1995 Srebrenica genocide -- Europe's worst slaughter since World War II. Serb forces led by Mladic killed more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys. Mladic's son Darko Mladic phoned him in jail Friday during a TV show and put the call on speaker. Serbian ultra-nationalist leader Vojislav Seselj, also condemned for war crimes, was present in the studio amid a cheerful atmosphere. "Tell Voja (Seselj) to come and see me to play chess, the last time I beat him ..
Thirty-seven killed in C.Africa clashes: UN
Thirty-seven bodies were found Friday in the central town of Alindao after clashes between armed groups, the UN mission in the perennially restive Central African Republic said. "Thirty-seven deaths confirmed in Alindo," said a report seen by AFP. An earlier report spoke of seven deaths in clashes on Thursday when Christian militiamen known as anti-balaka killed Muslims, prompting revenge attacks in which a priest was killed and a church torched.
Six jailed for life over deadly Istanbul airport attack: report
A Turkish court on Friday sentenced six suspected Islamic State militants to life in jail over the 2016 triple suicide bombing of Istanbul's main airport that killed 45 people, local media reported. The six were convicted of murder, violating the constitution and damaging property, according to the official Anadolu news agency. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack at Ataturk Airport on June 28, 2016 but Turkey said the Islamic State group was behind the airport blasts. The court indictment said IS had "targeted the Turkish republic" with the attack. Turkish media had previously identified the man who organised the assault as Akhmed Chatayev, the Chechen leader of an IS cell in Istanbul who reportedly found accommodation for the bombers. Nineteen foreigners were among those killed in the suicide bombings. Forty-six suspects -- one third of them Russian nationals -- were on trial in connection with the attack. There were no immediate details on the remaining suspects.
Chaos, brawls in Sri Lankan parliament over divisive no-confidence vote
Brewing tensions in Sri Lanka's Parliament over a no-confidence motion against the country's newly appointed prime minister boiled over to an all-out brawl between lawmakers on Friday.
Post-tigress killing fracas, BJP minister keeps off alliance efforts with Sena
Peeved over the massive fallout of the killing of tigress Avni (T1), Maharashtra Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar on Friday said he has decided to withdraw from the reconciliation efforts for an alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena.
Sitharaman addresses 58th NDC course participants
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman addressed Friday the participants of the National Defence College's 58th course, taken by senior officers of the armed forces. The Union minister spoke on 'India's National Security Imperatives amidst a transitional world order' on the occasion. "Smt @nsitharaman spoke extensively on 'India's National Security Imperatives admist a transitional world order' while addressing the 58th NDC Course participants at the National Defence College, New Delhi," the twitter handle of the defence minister said. Following the address, she had a question and answer session with the course participants at the National Defence College, it said.
We expect Youth of Kashmir to represent country in Sports: GOC Army's 15 Corps
AK Bhatt, General Officer Commanding (GOC) of Army's 15 Corps on Friday asserted that youth of Kashmir must not follow the path of violence and should strive to represent the nation in sports."We expect that youth of Kashmir can represent India in different sports and bring glory for the state and nation. This is what I see as the future of our youth," he said.Encouraging the youth to throw away guns and get into sports for a glorious future, Bhatt said, "Those who have guns in their hand, I want to say them to throw away the gun and get into sports. The path of violence is full of darkness. Holding weapon will only bring sadness for them and their families. We will surely give a chance to those holding gun but if they won't relent we will have to neutralise them."Condemning the killing of a youth in Shopian, Bhatt said, "These terrorists have no religion, no values. They have killed a young boy. The reason for the terrorist attack is still unknown. But definitely, it's a terrorist ...
Chhattisgarh: CRPF jawan ends life
A jawan of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) allegedly committedsuicide in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Bijapur district Friday. Constable Sujit Chandra Roy of 168th battalion hanged himself from a ceiling fan in the battalion's headquarters in Bijapur town, 450 km from here, a local police official said. Roy hailed from Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, the official said, adding that the cause of suicide was yet to be ascertained.