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Wednesday,
January 1, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Musharraf’s remark irresponsible: BJP When clouds of nuclear war hovered over India |
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Troops’ endless wait for nod from Delhi Assam ultras for talks on Dimasa issue
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Violence mars Bihar bandh
Patna, December 31 The mob turned violent and took to the streets, virtually chasing the police deployed in view of the bandh call. Bandh supporters attacked police outposts in the university area, in Kankarbagh and in Shiekhpura and partially torched them. They also threw stones at police parties in which some policemen and the commoners were injured. The agitated mob set fire to at least 15 vehicles, including eight police vehicles. They also damaged the vehicle of the Additional District Magistrate (ADM) of Patna. Undettered by the police who lobbed tear gas shells to disperse the mob, the agitated students went on the rampage. Women, too, joined the students and pelted stones on the police from their roof tops. The angry mob also targeted the Rapid Action Force which had a tough time tackling the mob. Different political parties and youth organisations had called the bandh to protest against the killing of three youths at Ashiananagar area on Saturday allegedly by the police. Meanwhile, State Director-General of Police R.R. Prasad claimed that the bandh was peaceful and said there was enough police force to tackle any situation. He said the police was trying to normalise the situation and over 500 anti-social elements had so far been nabbed in the state capital. He said six police officials guilty of firing, in which three innocent students were killed on Saturday, have been suspended. Murder cases against the guilty officials have also been instituted, he added. Meanwhile, official sources said the District Magistrate of Patna has recommended action against DSP Ajit Sinha who was on the spot during the firing in Ashiananagar. Meanwhile Bihar Governor V.C. Pande has sought a report from the state government on the killing of three youths in an alleged encounter with the police at Ashiana Nagar here last Saturday. Following his directive, Home Secretary R.J.M. Pillai asked District Magistrate Dipak Prasad and Senior Superintendent of Police Sunil Kumar to probe the entire episode. Official sources said Mr Prasad had already recommended removal of the DSP of the Sachiwalaya police station, Mr Ajit Kumar Sinha. An official inquiry by Additional Director General (CID) into the incident is already underway. New Delhi: The BJP on Tuesday demanded strict action against guilty policemen who were allegedly responsible for the death of three BJP workers in the state.
UNI, PTI |
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Musharraf’s remark irresponsible: BJP New Delhi, December 31 “The Pakistani President making the irresponsible statement about the use of nuclear weapons against India on the eve of the New Year is a clear indication that Islamabad is seeking to move down the path towards self destruction,” party spokesman Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told newspersons here. He said it was a cause of worry and warning for all those countries who have united in the war against global terrorism. “This becomes even more significant because the statement has been made not by a terrorist organisation but by the head of a country,” he said. Mr Naqvi said Gen Musharraf’s statement further vindicated India’s stand that it was the Pakistan Government and the Inter-Services Intelligence who were behind cross-border terrorism against India. |
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When clouds of nuclear war hovered over India New Delhi, December 31 To attack (Pakistan) or not to attack was the Vajpayee government’s dilemma — not very dissimilar to the 1999 Kargil war dilemma whether or not to cross the Line of Control (LoC). And the Vajpayee government’s response, thanks to international pressure, was the same in both cases: no. The massive mobilisation of troops which India started in the wake of the December 13, 2001, terrorist attack on Parliament and which Pakistan reciprocated battalion by battalion and squadron by squadron triggered off the fears of a full-scale war between the traditional foes and the mother of all fears that such a conflict may degenerate into the first-ever nuclear war in the world. The war clouds were the darkest in the months of January — when the Parliament attack memory was still fresh and the Vajpayee government was under tremendous pressure to do something to salvage the national honour; and May — after the May 14 Kaluchak incident in which terrorists methodically targeted and killed, for the first time, more than 20 family members of Indian Army personnel. Both these months of high war probability passed off with much smoke and no fire. The international community (read the USA and the UK) had assessed that the Vajpayee government may choose to launch a limited military action against Pakistan just before January 26 when the national sentiments are at their peak. The international community managed to tide over this crisis by coaxing Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf into making landmark announcements in his address to the nation on January 12 in which he banned five jehadi and sectarian outfits. The Jaish-e-Mohammad, one of the five banned outfits, cocked a snook at General Musharraf when its military spokesman Shamsuddin Hyder said in a statement that it had enough arms and assets to continue its struggle against Indian “rule” in Jammu and Kashmir. “We are determined to continue our armed struggle under “operation fateh” despite the ban imposed by the Pakistan Government. Jaish has the capacity and potential of continuing the armed freedom struggle in held Kashmir for five more years without any outside help. We have enough arms and ammunition in our arsenal.” An intense bout of international shuttle diplomacy followed when top functionaries of the USA the UK, France and the European Union visited India and Pakistan. Just when tensions between India and Pakistan were high and over a million troops had been engaged in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation for five months, Kaluchak happened. This gave birth to another theory that Islamic terrorists were hell-bent on triggering off an Indo-Pakistan war to divert attention from the international coalition’s war against terror in Afghanistan. The renewed tensions led to yet another address to the nation by General Musharraf (May 27) who blamed India for creating a war-like hysteria. He appealed to the world to persuade New Delhi to come to the negotiating table, but at the same time he reiterated his stand that Pakistan would continue to provide moral, political and diplomatic support to the cause of Kashmir. On June 1, General Musharraf said in an interview with CNN that he was willing to meet Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in Almaty (Kazakhstan) during the CICA summit. He ruled out the possibility of a nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan and dismissed as “absolutely baseless” allegations that Islamabad was moving nuclear-tipped missiles near the border. Military tensions immediately after Kaluchak made the USA fly its Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage to the subcontinent. This visit proved to be a mirage from India’s point of view. Mr Armitage told the Indian leadership that General Musharraf had promised him that he would put an immediate and permanent end to cross-border terrorism and cross-border infiltration. This did the trick and after this pledge the Vajpayee government had no option but to abandon the war option for the time being and give Pakistan some more time to determine whether the commando President is delivering on his pledge or not. Mr Armitage’s first visit to the Indian subcontinent in 2002 did cool down the political and military tempers in the subcontinent. Signal intelligence pertaining to the Lashkar-e-Toiba network revealed that restrictions had been imposed on wireless communication between valley-based cadres and the Pakistan/PoK based senior commanders. India, under international pressure, announced a slew of diplomatic and political measures signalling its desire to improve relations with Pakistan, but Islamabad did not reciprocate. It declined to open its skies for Indian planes and flatly refused to give India the status of most favoured nation (MFN). But actually General Musharraf was only biding for time, perhaps at the behest of the Americans. He knew that he would go back on his word. The international community also perhaps knew that Pakistan would go back on its word and it would look the other way when India remonstrates. The post-Kaluchak lull in terrorist activities did not last long. General Musharraf also started talking tough. On June 28 he said while addressing a meeting of army officials at National Defence College, Islamabad, that Pakistan would never compromise on Kashmir and he even denied that the issue was buried during the talks with the USA or any western powers. From the second half of June, the terrorist outfits’ wireless sets started crackling again between the PoK and Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan-sponsored terrorism reached newer and deadlier proportions during the September-October Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan used every trick possible to sabotage the poll, but failed and the world’s leading powers hailed the “free and fair” elections as a major development. General Musharraf described the elections as a farce, conveniently forgetting his own farcial national referendum which confirmed him as President for another five years. After the completion of the Jammu and Kashmir poll process, the Cabinet Committee on Security held a crucial meeting and decided to recall the Indian troops to their peacetime location. The USA has once again been exposed in the India-Pakistan standoff even as the international power scene was undergoing rapid changes. After the completion of the Jammu and Kashmir elections and the withdrawal of troops, the USA virtually disengaged itself from the region. The USA had similarly scaled down its operations in Afghanistan and reconciled itself to the fact that it could manage limited success in its war against the loose canons of the Al-Qaida and the Taliban as Osama bin Laden and Mulla Omar were still alive. The US double standards came to the fore in the last two months of 2002 when it started beefing up its war machinery against Iraq. Even as the Americans were busy in giving final touches to making war preparations, North Korea, one of the three countries of President George W Bush’s “Axis of Evil”, made an open announcement that it possessed nuclear weapons. The American leadership opted to tackle North Korea diplomatically and not militarily. The North Koreans dismantled the American monitoring equipment from its nuclear reactors, which were installed in the year 1994, and the USA still talked of the need for finding a diplomatic solution. |
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Troops’ endless wait for nod from Delhi New Delhi, December 31 The troop
mobilisation, which was ordered after the December 13 attack on Parliament in 2001 and completed more than a month later, was ordered for ‘redeployment’ more than 10 months later, but with Pakistan still continuing with its cross-border activities and providing the required backing to the terrorists operating in the troubled state of Jammu and Kashmir. Although India claimed at various fora that as a result of the troop mobilisation it had managed to exert pressure on Pakistan to put an end to its activities of abetting terrorism across its borders and that our neighbour had been projected as a nation which is following terrorism as a state policy, for the troops waiting endlessly for a nod from New Delhi the object would have been achieved only and only if the political leadership had allowed them to cross the border. Senior armed forces officer while talking privately point out that India could not have got a better opportunity than this to settle scores with Pakistan and that it was very frustrating for them to maintian an eyeball-to-eyeball position without carrying out any action. However, international pressure, more importantly the American pressure on India to maintain restraint and let the US troops finish their job in the fight against terrorism, let the advantage slip away from New Delhi. While the troops slugged it out in extreme weather conditions on the border for months without any break, the political leadership here remained undecisive about which way to go. The US assurances and re-assurances that it was applying pressure on Pakistan did not actually help the Indian cause accept that the proximity between the two drew closer and the Americans started looking at India as an ally for its future actions against Islamic terrorists. It was apparently the worry of the Indian sub-continent ending up as a nuclear flashpoint, with India and Pakistan both possessing nuclear weapons, that had the world on the edge of its seat. But for India, the crores spent in mobilising and de-mobilising the troops went down the drain with even the objective of applying adequate pressure on Pakistan not having been achieved. Although statistics show that cross-border terrorism has gone down in Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan has actually not given up its activities. It has only diverted its attention a little from Jammu and Kashmir to the other troubled spots in the country, specially in the North-East. Making Bangladesh as its base, Pakistan’s ISI is now trying to foment trouble in the north-eastern states. Having lost the advantage, now the country’s leadership has got around to saying that India will have to go alone in its fight against terrorism. A clear message is also coming out that the USA did not apply sufficient pressure on Pakistan, but for the troops it is two steps back without taking a step forward. In fact, Pakistan again managed to make an intrusion in the Indian region and this was confirmed by Defence Minister George Fernandes in Parliament that Air Force fighters had been used to evict Pakistani intrusion along the Line of Control in Machil sector. Recently, other reports also suggested that Indian forces had considered several times the option to strike at terrorist camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, but no such steps were actually taken. On the achievements in the defence sector India carried out further tests of its medium and short-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile Agni as well as the first-ever joint Indo-Russian cruise missile Brahmos. After successful trials, the Army has begun to induct the much-needed SMERCH long-range multi-barrel rocket system and firmed up on a fast-track basis contract to acquire US ANTPQ-37 weapon-locating radar, both of which were sourly missed during 1999 Kargil conflict. The indigenously developed Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Technology Demonstrator-II was successfully flight tested in June at Bangalore. So far 41 flight tests have been successfully conducted on two technology demonstrators of the LCA. On the other hand limited series production of indigenously designed pilotless target aircraft Lakshya also commenced. The year also saw the Indian Air Force getting its first Marshal of the IAF. Former Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal (retd) Arjan Singh was conferred with the honour with effect from January 26, 2002. With the armed forces fully stretched in deployment along the international border and the LoC, the Army for the first time had to revoke earlier moves to enforce manpower pruning undertaken in 1997. The changed geo-political situation in the region spurred major arms purchases with the government speeding up delivery schedules of major items like the T-90 tanks and SMERCH rockets, but failed to take a final decision on other major purchases like the multi-billion sterling deal on Advanced Jet Trainers (AJTs) and the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier. Though the deal to manufacture French Scorpene submarines under technology transfer was cleared, the final decision by the Cabinet Committee on Security was still pending. The Indian Navy, which played a major role in tensions with Pakistan by undertaking forward patrolling in the north Arabian Sea during operation ‘Parakram’ received a setback as Russians failed to keep to their delivery dates for the Navy’s most lethal induction of the stealth KRIVAK class warships. The Air Force, in the absence of the AJTs, had its cup of woes full with recurring crashes of its ageing mainstay MiG-21 fleet. As many as 18 of these aircraft were involved in mishaps in 2002. The crash toll, to the IAF’s dismay, included one of the upgraded MiG-21s christened
MiG-Bison. The IAF inducted the first squadron of these Bisons. The force plans to upgrade 125 MiG-21s in a joint venture with Russia and Israel at a cost of Rs 1200 crore. |
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Assam ultras for talks on Dimasa issue New Delhi, December 31 A meeting was held in this regard between the DHD representative, the Assam Government and the Centre here last week, an official statement said here today. Senior Home Ministry officers conducted the meeting. Taking note of the willingness of the DHD to give up violence and take to peaceful means for solving the Dimasa problem it was agreed to suspend hostile operations between the DHD and the security forces for six months with effect from the New Year day. It was also agreed that peace talks with all the parties concerned would follow the suspension of operations and enforcement of ground rules, the statement said. The Government of India believes in solution of problems through talks and negotiations to bring about peace, stability and development, the statement said adding in this regard the Centre had also made an appeal to all militant groups. |
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President greets
nation New Delhi, December 31 |
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