Army Orders Probe Into Jalandhar Blast

Jalandhar: Army officials on Wednesday launched an investigation into the explosion on Tuesday night in an army truck that left four soldiers dead on the Jalandhar cantonment in Punjab.

Army officials said the soldiers were killed when a low maintenance battery five-ton truck exploded in the motor transport section of an artillery unit stationed here from 11 Corps.

The soldiers were from the set of 20 SATA Army artillery based here. The area was sealed off shortly after the explosion.

Army officials said the soldiers were killed when a low maintenance battery five-ton truck exploded in the motor transport section of an artillery unit stationed here from 11 Corps.

The soldiers were from the set of 20 SATA Army artillery based here. The area was sealed off shortly after the explosion. The police, however, here say an explosion at a car battery could not be as powerful to kill four people. A police officer said three of the victims died instantly, while the fourth died in hospital.

The Naresh Vig defense spokesman said Wednesday that the Army investigation into the explosion had begun. “This is an internal Army investigation,” he said.

Vig said the autopsy of the bodies had been in the military hospital here.

Barring any sabotage, military officials said soldiers were unloading some equipment when the explosion took place in Jalandhar cantonment, about 150 km from Chandigarh.

On 11 Corps based here is the army border unit care in India’s western border with Pakistan. It is under Western control.

Darjeeling Land Scam,Govt Assures Tough Action

New Delhi: A day after top officials at Army service were convicted in a land scam worth Rs 290 million rupees in Darjeeling, West Bengal, the government said Tuesday stern action against all those indicted by the Tribunal Research.

Speaking to reporters here The Minister of State (Defense) Pallam Raju said, “The Ministry has been directed to take action against the defendants. We will take strong action against those responsible for this.”

“If there is any irregularity, the authorities concerned will look at the issue,” he added.

When asked about recent reports of China runways construction along the border Raju said, “I do not think we should be alarmed unnecessarily. As a regional power, they (China) will strengthen its infrastructure.They acquire their weapons and are doing what we do to strengthen our line. ”

The Minister was asked to respond to reports saying China was building to over 27 airstrips in the LAC.

An investigation of the Court of Inquiry into the alleged land scam has revealed that the Army Lieutenant General (Lt. Gen.) Avadesh Prakash took undue interest in a project of Siliguri.Prakash General PK Rath then forced to clear acres of land near the Army cantonment area here.

The Court of Inquiry (COI) headed by Lt. Gen. Parnaik KT, the General Commander of the Tezpur-based 4 bodies, two officers indicted for his role in issuing a no-objection certificate (NOC) to an establishment private falsely setting up a subsidiary in May alleging the famous Ajmer College.

Lt. Gen. Prakash is one of the eight generals at headquarters in an advisory capacity as army chief, General Deepak Kapoor. Prakash is responsible for promotion and assignment of officials and the post is said to be much sought after one.

Lieutenant General Rath was ready to go to the Army Headquarters as one of the leading staff officers with the boss, but his announcement was held in abeyance pending the probe.

Army Chief Warns Of 26/11 Type Terror Attacks

NEW DELHI: Army Chief Deepak Kapoor on Tuesday warned that such attacks were a 26/11 Mumbai terrorism and the possibility that India should take all measures to counter these attacks.
“We must take all measures to prevent any attacks in Mumbai. We can not dismiss the fears of such possibilities,” Kapoor told reporters on the sidelines of a function of the Army.
When asked if there were terror alerts in recent days, said the South Asian region is infested with terrorist groups. If India, Afghanistan or Pakistan, “who must fight these threats collectively.”
Noting that Pakistan has also been the target of terrorist attacks in recent times, said both Defense Minister AK Antony and Interior Minister P Chidambaram had asked us to be cautious against such threats.
Pakistan’s army claims to have seized some Indian-made weapons of the terrorists involved in recent attacks, the army chief said India had no intention of causing trouble inside Pakistan and not support any terrorist group in the region.
“We want Pakistan to be stable and peaceful,” he said.
On the Naxal menace, Kapoor said the army will continue to train paramilitary forces to combat Naxals and would be an ongoing process.
“The battle against Naxals not end in a day. Naxalism to eradicate, it will take time. It will be a long battle,” he said, giving examples of counterinsurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast, which had lasted for decades.
paramilitary forces in the fight against futuristic Naxals would be an option.
He said the strategy of supply and
paramilitary forces in the fight against futuristic Naxals would be an option.

Army Frees 39 Captives In GHQ Operation In Pakistan

RAWALPINDI: Military commandos raided a building of the Army headquarters Sunday and freed 39 people held hostage by the militants who staged a brazen attack on the compound while wearing military uniforms.

Director General ISPR Maj. Gen. talking to Nhatky.in to said four militants were killed, three captives and two commandoes were also martyred in the action and two others were injured.

The leader of the terrorists Aqeel alias Dr Usman was captured in injured condition.

Three hostages embraced martyrdom while 39 were released out of total 42 in Search and Clearance Operation launched in two phases, said Director General Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas talking to the media-persons here.

The first phase of the operation, which started at 6 am Sunday by the commandos of Special Services Group of Pakistan Army against the terrorists, took forty minutes to rescue hostages.

However, the terrorists’ leader Aqeel alias Dr. Usman managed to escape which led to launch the second phase of the operation mainly to search the terrorist.

He said in the second phase terrorist Aqeel was successfully overpowered within few minutes and remaining 12 hostages were also released.

“The terrorist arrested in injured condition is the leader of the attackers. His name is Aqeel alias Dr. Usman and he is linked with Punjabi Taliban,” security sources said. Aqeel said to be the mastermind of the attack on Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore.

According to reports three injured hostages have been admitted in hospital.

Explosions and gunshots rang out just before dawn Sunday as commandos moved into a building in the complex, while a helicopter hovered in the sky. Three ambulances were seen driving out of the heavily fortified base close to the capital, Islamabad.

Two hours after the raid began, two new explosions were heard. The army said it was “mopping up” the remaining insurgents.

Five heavily armed militants took the hostages after they and about four other assailants attacked the main gate of the army headquarters Saturday, killing six soldiers, including a brigadier and a lieutenant colonel. Four of the attackers, who were wearing army uniforms, were killed.

Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said 20 of the hostages had been kept in a room guarded by a militant wearing a suicide vest who was shot and killed before he managed to detonate his explosives.

He said the militants had suicide jackets, hand grenades, landmines, explosives along with sophisticated rifles.

Political, Army Brass Finally Decide SWA Operation

ISLAMABAD: The political and military leadership of the country has finally decided to carry out army offensive in restive South Waziristan after a meeting in presidency here Saturday, reported.

According to correspondent the meeting chaired by President Asif Ali Zardari here at Aiwan-e-Sadr was attended by Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani, Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi and DG ISI Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha.

The meeting finalized the strategy for South Waziristan operation. It also decided to convey Pakistan’s reservations over Kerry-Lugar bill, besides fine-tuning government’s plan to tackle the inner crisis over the aid bill.

Sources said the President and PM have decided to hold talks with the US administration over the disputed points of the bill.

The meeting discussed the prevailing security situation, with a particular reference to the attack on the GHQ and the recent attacks at Peshawar and Islamabad.

Earlier, Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani separately called on the President and discussed current political situation with the President.

On ‘Op Alert’ Along China Border Indian Army

New Delhi: The Indian Army has launched a massive effort in strengthening the posts later in the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China, describing it as “routine”.

The effort led to the operational monitoring and kick-started this week, comes at this time a year just before the weather gets worse during the winter.

“Not much is attributable to this effort which is conducted annually to maintain the forward positions before the weather makes it impossible. This is a routine matter,” Army sources said here tonight.

The effort will last a month and for the purpose, the Army has used half of their troops available along the 4057 km long LAC in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh in active service that said.

This maintenance effort comes at a time when reports have been incursions by Chinese troops Chumar Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir, where a military helicopter took to the air and low food cans mandarin letters painted on some the stones to put claim the territory.

These raids, the army had said, were “nothing unusual” because of the different perceptions of LAC on both sides.

Other media for warplanes violated the airspace of China and India to shoot ITBP jawans in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh in the last three months have been denied by the government.

Army: Killed 4000 Terrorist In Eight Years

Chief of BDR Died in Mutiny: Army

Dhaka: Major General Shakil Ahmed, director general of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), died in a hail of bullets within 10 minutes of the mutiny by the troopers that ended after two days of killing and chaos.

The general’s killing was confirmed late Thursday evening by Lt. Col. Syed Kamruzzaman, who survived the killing-spree by troopers of the country’s border guards, a media report said Friday.

Over 50 people, many of them officers of the Bangladesh Army, are reported to have been killed during the mutiny.

The shooting by mutinous troopers began at the Darbar Hall, which is the conference room, at BDR headquarters at Pilkhana in the national capital Wednesday morning, The Daily Star newspaper said.

Its web site Star Online Friday said that two bodies of an elderly couple was also found at the director general’s residence.

They were identified as those of a retired colonel and his wife who had come for medical treatment and were guests of General Ahmed.

Qamaruzzaman told the media at the staff college officers’ mess in Mirpur Cantonment that he was saved by “a few good jawans”.

As a band of troopers wearing red bandanas opened fire inside the conference room at around 9.45 a.m., Kamruzzaman and 11 other officers, including the director general, took shelter in corners of the stage in the hall.

After around five minutes, some troopers ordered them to come out and walk in a line led by General Ahmed.

“As the DG (Shakil Ahmed) climbed down the stairs of darbar hall, one jawan sprayed him with bullets. Soon the other jawans there started firing on us,” said Kamruzzaman.

“I dived on the ground after a bullet hit me in the stomach. Somehow I managed to crawl inside a washroom. A few minutes later, some jawans found that I was hiding in a toilet. They fired a volley of shots at me, but miraculously none hit me,” he went on.

“As one jawan pointed his gun at my chest, in desperation I hugged him tightly and asked, ‘Why will you kill me? What harm did I do to you?’.

“I don’t know what occurred to them. They said ‘OK. We won’t kill you’. They took me to another place and kept me hidden from others.”

Lt. Col. Kamruzzaman, general staff officer 1 (communication), said when the troopers were taking him to safety he saw bodies of Major General Shakil Ahmed, Brig Bari, Col. Moshiur, Col. Zahid, Col. Anis, Col. Emdad and Lt. Col. Ershad.

He said over 160 officers were in the darbar hall when the killing spree began.

However, he could not say what happened to others.

He said as another group spotted him a few hours before the end of the mutiny, he told them that it was their men who hid him there.

“They told me, ‘OK, we’ll spare you, but you have to run as we order’. As I started zigzagging down the lawn, some armed jawans attempted to shoot at me. But the ones who saved me first came to my rescue again. They took me to the quarter guardroom from where I was finally rescued,” Kamruzzaman said.

At the same briefing, Major Monir described how he cheated death hiding in a drain and then inside the false ceiling of the darbar hall for almost two days.

“I watched helpless as jawans killed other officers,” he said.

Col. Asif, Lt. Col. Yasmin and her husband A.K.M. Arifur Rahman, a district judge of Dhaka, spoke in the briefing.

They claimed that the BDR men looted valuables from almost all households.

The mutiny by the BDR troopers broke out Wednesday morning when they took control of their headquarter in the capital city. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina offered general amnesty to them, but the troopers were defiant and refused to lay down arms.

The government held talks with a delegation of the mutineers Thursday and an agreement was reached but by that time, the mutiny spread to other BDR camps located all over the country.

The revolt ended in the face of an imminent attack by the Bangladesh Army which moved tanks into position outside the BDR headquarters. The mutineers then laid down their arms.

Army Losing The Charm, colonels shun elite course

NEW DELHI: For the first time, more than 10 colonels have refused to join the prestigious “higher command course” (HCC) and “higher defence management course” (HDMC) run by the Army for its topmost officers in the reckoning for higher ranks like brigadier and major general.

The move by the colonels, who apparently do not want to sign the mandatory bond to serve another five years in the uniform after the one-year courses, has come as a rude shock for the army brass, who are already grappling with more and more officers filing for premature retirement or release.

“This is unprecedented. Earlier, officers threw parties if they were selected for HCC or HDMC. But now, many bright officers simply want to ditch their uniforms for lucrative jobs in the corporate world,” said a senior officer.

“The paltry hikes suggested by the 6th Pay Commission have only made matters worse. Some officers feel if they do not become brigadiers due to the steeply pyramidical promotional structure in the armed forces, why should they rot in service for another five years?” he added.

Incidentally, only one in around 10 colonels are “deep selected” for HCC at Army War College in Mhow, and for HDMC at the triservice College of Defence Management in Secunderabad.

The courses are considered crucial because they are structured to teach officers “going up the hierarchy” all about higher-level defence planning and management of war at the operational and strategic levels.

The decision of the selected colonels to opt out of the courses reinforces the fact that the armed forces are facing a bleeding battle on two fronts. One, they are failing to attract bright youngsters with requisite OLQs (officer-like qualities) to join the forces.

Two, serving officers are seeking PMR in ever-mounting numbers.