Friday 31 July 2015

Mortar recovered from Gurdaspur terrorists puzzles analysts

Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said that the terrorists had come from Pakistan.

Sandeep Unnithan New Delhi, July 31, 2015 | UPDATED 18:48 IST

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Mortar recovered from Gurdaspur terrorists

Military analysts are puzzled by the recovery of a 60 mm mortar from the three terrorists who struck at a police station in Dina Nagar near Gurdaspur on July 27. This is mainly because the mortar is an indirect fire weapon effective only in open spaces. The terrorists who struck at the police station in Dina Nagar 20 kilometres away from the international border were later holed up in a building in the complex where they were eliminated by the Punjab police SWAT team. The terrorists armed with AK series rifles had earlier shot up a passenger bus and planted plastic explosives on the Pathankot-Amritsar railway track before they stormed the police station.

"It is strange that terrorists who attacked a police station would lug along a 10-kg weapon for over 20 km if it had no tactical utility, " says Colonel Vivek Chadha (retired) of the New Delhi-based Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA). The 60 mm mortar is an artillery piece that has been frequently used by Pakistani rangers to target Indian posts and villages along the international border in Jammu. Its recovery from the terrorists points to a larger, yet unexplored aspect of the plot that clearly aimed at killing maximum number of civilians.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said that the terrorists had come from Pakistan. Punjab police officials who spoke to INDIA TODAY played down the recovery of the weapon. A senior police official in Gurdaspur confirmed that a mortar tube and one live round were recovered from the scene after the operation but declined to provide further details like the manufacturer of the mortar or the live round. The 60 mm mortar is an artillery piece with an effective range of around 500 metres. The shell is dropped into the tube usually held at a 45-degree angle where it hits a firing pin at the bottom which ignites the round and launches it out of the tube.

File photograph of a 60 mm light mortar in use.

Curiously, on July 22 recovery police recovered nine live mortar rounds from the railway tracks in Kurukshetra, Haryana on July 22. The nine 51 mm rounds were recovered from the Delhi-Ambala railway tracks early in the morning, over 300 kilometres south-east of Dina Nagar. These shells belonging to the Indian Navy had been declared missing in October 2012.

Mortar rounds from the ordnance factories are normally despatched in boxes of ten. One round could not be traced, police officials confirmed. The shells were manufactured at the Ordnance Factory Khadki and shipped to the Naval Armament Depot at Alwaye near Kochi. Naval sources confirmed that the box containing ten mortar shells had been despatched from the naval depot to a government testing range in Itarsi, Madhya Pradesh for range testing in October 2012. The shells were 'illumination rounds' used to provide target practice. The consignment had been declared missing while in transit in 2012. The Government Railway Police in Haryana has despatched a police team to Kochi to probe how the missing shells surfaced in on the railway tracks in the state nearly three years later.

Tuesday 28 July 2015

How Punjab averted an India-Pakistan conflict

The state's model of heightened public awareness and investment in specialised police units shows how others can overcome terrorist strikes.

POLITICS

| 3-minute read | 28-07-2015

SANDEEP UNNITHAN

@sandeepunnithan

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The July 27 attack on the Dina Nagar police station in Gurdaspur by three Pakistani terrorists is the first strike in Punjab by assault rifle wielding desperadoes in nearly two decades. It is also the state’s first-ever fedayeen attack. The fedayeen concept evolved after the 1999 Kargil War and used by the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed to attack targets in Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Mumbai. To understand why the Gurdaspur attack, just a day after the 16th anniversary of the Kargil War, completely failed, it is necessary to understand its objectives. The aim was to massacre hundreds of civilians by shooting up a passenger bus, blowing up a passenger train and, finally, a prolonged siege at a police station backed by breathless minute-by-minute "India Under Attack" television coverage. It was to have been the largest strike on Indian soil after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. The passenger bus — heavily targeted by Punjab militants in the 1980s — would have fuelled an erroneous notion of a revival of terrorism in the state.

If the terrorists had succeeded, they would have stirred the communal cauldron and ratcheted up the pressure on the government for swift retaliation. It would have become impossible for the government to resist public pressure to react to a high body count.

Fortunately it didn’t work this way. Only seven persons including a superintendent of police were killed - and the country has a crop of new heroes to thank for averting catastrophe. A vigilant railwayman, Darshan Kumar, who raised an alarm spotted the "pressure bombs" on the Pathankot-Amritsar railway tracks just five minutes before a train with more than 200 passengers passed over it. An alert Punjab Roadways bus driver, Nanak Chand, sped away with 80 potential hostages after he refused to halt for the masked gun-toting terrorists. And finally, Punjab police chief Sumedh Singh Saini, a veteran of Punjab’s insurgency years, with enough confidence in his newly-raised Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team to keep the army and National Security Guards (NSG) out of the operation. This is possibly the first time outside Jammu and Kashmir and its remarkable Special Operations Group (SOG), that a state police unit has kept central forces away from a siege. The central government aided only with the shutdown of live broadcasts, a lesson from Mumbai 26/11 where live coverage led to the deaths of hostages. These heartening trends are, to my mind, the biggest takeaways from the Gurdaspur attack.

The revival of the Punjab Police in the late 1980s under the remarkable KPS Gill and the visionary chief minister Beant Singh was a big reason why militancy was stamped out of the state by 1993. It showed that it was indeed possible for state forces to quell insurgencies. The Punjab police’s stylishly accoutered and equipped Israeli-trained SWAT unit — black golf T shirts, cargo pants and combat boots and modern SiG and Tavor rifles — ended the siege at the police station in under 12 hours. They have proved that state police forces can fight this new phase of terror by investing in special units without hand-holding from the centre. Punjab has once again shown the way in what promises to be a long and grim fight against state-sponsored terrorism.

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Monday 20 July 2015

The voices of 26/11

How voices caused greater damage than bullets during 26/11

The persistent command and control, possibly the first for any terrorist strike in history, made it so unique.

POLITICS

| 4-minute read | 19-07-2015

SANDEEP UNNITHAN

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If you can tear your eyes away from the haunting visuals of a burning Taj hotel or the terrified hotel guests looking skyward at the smoking Oberoi, the November 26, 2008 terrorist attack is all about voices. The scream of a startled diner at the Taj looking into the face of death: a 21-year old AK-47-wielding terrorist in a five-star hotel. The agonising wail of a woman commuter of a long distance train at a platform of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) as she slowly bleeds to death, hit by lead sprayed by a terrorist jogging past the concourse. The howl of a Colaba resident whose legs are peppered with steel pellets from a grenade tossed from a Jewish guest house.

There are the other voices that emerge, spectre-like, from the mobile phones of these terrorists — the voices of the masterminds. This is not surprising. The Mumbai attack was a commando-type raid carried out by a terrorist group with umbilical ties to the Pakistani deep state. What would a military-style attack be without command and control? The orders were barked out by officer-handlers ensconced in a control room in Karachi’s Malir cantonment to their foot soldiers in Mumbai nearly 1,000km away. This persistent command and control, possibly the first for any terrorist attack in history, is one of the reasons that made the Mumbai attack so unique.

Terrorist commanders like Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah knew their recruits, high on fanatical bravado and training, had the energy bursts of sprinters. The masterminds wanted them to have the endurance of marathon runners. From their control room, the handlers urged them on, like frenzied sports coaches, to inflict maximum damage on the city. Nine of the ten terrorists were first-timers. The handlers made up for this inexperience with a barrage of astonishingly lucid tactical instructions. They urged them to start fires in the Taj to blot out CCTV cameras, then, capture Indian parliamentarians who had rashly revealed their location on Indian primetime television. They urged them to execute hostages without mercy, berated the terrorists when they sounded distracted by the opulence of the Taj, read out instructions on how to conduct hostage negotiations and finally, prayed for the speedy ascent of the attackers into the afterworld as they died one by one.

Care had been taken to ensure the handlers remained ghosts. The barrage of voice over internet protocol (VOIP) calls were bounced off servers based half-way across the world. The terrorists used Indian SIM cards procured by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). It was to be a plausibly deniable operation, ostensibly carried out by the Indian youth. But like so many other clues, the role of a foreign hand was revealed on the first night of the mayhem when joint commissioner of police Deven Bharti answered a ringing cellphone left behind by a fleeing terrorist at the Taj. The voices of instruction that continued as the terrorists prolonged their multiple sieges were recorded by Indian intelligence agencies. It helped investigators link the terrorists with the handlers and frame charges for the criminal prosecution that would follow. The voices also helped them ascertain, for instance, that at least one of the handlers was Indian because of the unique words like "prashasan" (administration) which he used.

Abu Jundal who hailed from Maharashtra was deported from Saudi Arabia in 2012. The Indian government has, since 2010, insisted on obtaining the voice samples of the LeT handlers. These samples when electronically matched with intercepts of the recordings submitted in a CD to Pakistani authorities, could provide irrevocable proof of the LeT’s hand in the attacks.

In 2011, Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), India’s equivalent of the CBI, petitioned the Pakistan high court to obtain voice samples of seven LeT accused, including Lakhvi, still in Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail. After four years, the FIA’s special prosecutor Mohammed Azhar Chaudhry said in a Pakistani newspaper interview published on July 18 that the voice samples of the masterminds cannot be used as evidence. This was because, he said, there was no way by which the accused could be made to give their voice samples, and because "the recordings made by the Indian intelligence agencies could not be verified". This astonishing U-turn by the FIA came just a week after the July 10 joint statement read out by the foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan in Ufa, Russia. Both India and Pakistan promised to address ways to expedite the 26/11 case including the issue of voice samples. That was until the Pakistani deep state hit the mute button on its civilian establishment.

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Thursday 16 July 2015

India-Pakistan diplomatic visa freeze

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India

India-Pakistan diplomatic visa freeze

According to government sources, the freeze began last month when Pakistan refused to issue visas to two yoga instructors.

Sandeep Unnithan New Delhi, July 16, 2015 | UPDATED 19:35 IST

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India and Pakistan have halted issuing diplomatic visas to each other. According to government sources, the freeze began last month when Pakistan refused to issue visas to two yoga instructors. India retaliated by refusing to issue a visa to a diplomat suspected to be an ISI official. As a result, Pakistan has now stopped issuing visas to several Indian officials including an Indian defence attache and other diplomatic officials. And so, the tit for tat continues.

According to sources, the government, earlier in the day, planned a multi-pronged approach to take on Pakistan following a warning by intelligence agencies of more attacks on Border Security Force (BSF) posts on the border.

India and Pakistan traded heavy fire on the international border in Jammu district on Thursday on the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's day-long visit to the region, police said. Incidents unprovoked firing by Pakistani forces targeting BSF posts in Jammu and Kashmir region has seen a sudden rise in the reecent past. On July 9, Pakistani troops fired at a forward border post in North Kashmir killing a BSF jawan, an incident that came on the eve of talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Ufa, Russia.

India-Pakistan diplomatic visa freeze

According to government sources, the freeze began last month when Pakistan refused to issue visas to two yoga instructors.

Sandeep Unnithan New Delhi, July 16, 2015 | UPDATED 19:35 IST

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Sunday 12 July 2015

India wants to expand Central Asian footprint with lease of Ayni airbase

India wants to expand footprint in Central Asia: Modi to ask Tajikistan for lease of ex-Soviet airbase

By SANDEEP UNNITHAN

PUBLISHED: 23:20 GMT, 11 July 2015 | UPDATED: 00:27 GMT, 12 July 2015

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to ask Tajikistan for the lease of a former Soviet airbase that was refurbished by India in 2007.

Government sources told Mail Today that use of the Ayni airbase for the Indian Air Force, tops the agenda for discussion with Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon when the prime minister arrives on a state visit on July 12.

Tajikistan marks the last leg of Prime Minister Modi’s eight-day tour of the five Central Asian Republics and Russia.

Government sources told Mail Today that use of the Ayni airbase for the Indian Air Force, tops the agenda for discussion with Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon. Above, a Google Earth image of Ayni air force base

The Ayni airbase near Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe has long been key to expanding India’s strategic footprint in Central Asia.

India refurbished the base in 2007 but could not base fighters and helicopters there because of Russian pressure.

“Getting a foreign airbase, particularly in Central Asia is a significant development. But in this case, two other countries, Tajikistan and Russia, have to agree,” former Air Chief Marshal PV Naik told Mail Today.

The origins of the airbase lie in the hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight IC-814 to Kandahar.

The Vajpayee government began talks for the lease of an airbase after it discovered it had no proximate access to Afghanistan.

Tajikistan shares a 1,400-km land border with Afghanistan. In the mid-1990s India set up a field hospital at another Tajik airbase in Farkhor, over 100 km south-east of the capital Dushanbe, from where it supported the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance forces of Ahmad Shah Massoud.

In 2002, India and Tajikistan signed a bilateral defence agreement, one component of which was the repair of a disused Soviet airbase, Ayni, 10 km west of Dushanbe.

The IAF planned to base a squadron of Mi-17 transport helicopters there and also train Tajik Air Force pilots.

The Border Roads Organisation spent $70 million (Rs 443 crore) to refurbish the airbase in 2007, lengthening its runway to 3.2 kilometres, and building hangars and an air traffic control tower.

Resistance, however, came from an unexpected quarter: Russia, which considers Tajikistan within its sphere of influence.

In 2007, Russia pressurised the Tajik government to deny India access to the airbase, and the plans went into cold storage.

The use of the Ayni airbase received fresh impetus from the Modi government.

Last September, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj visited Tajikistan during the 14th SCO summit and held talks with the Tajik President.

One of the items on the agenda, besides cooperation on counter-terrorism, was the use of the Ayni airbase.

Indian government officials say leasing the base could be problematic.

Besides Russia, concerns could also be raised by Pakistan and China.

The airbase is just a half-hour flying time away from the Tajik-China border.

Tajikistan has no land boundary with Pakistan, the two countries are separated by Afghanistan’s narrow Wakhan Corridor, but the prospect of an Indian airbase in its rear has raised alarm in Pakistan.

In recent years, Pakistan has worked hard to dissuade Tajikistan from the airbase lease.

In 2012, Pakistan offered to reactivate two other disused airbases and offered free training for the Tajikistan Air Force.

Saturday 4 July 2015

Army zeroes in on Made in India rifles to replace INSAS

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Mail Today

Army zeroes in on Made in India rifles to replace INSAS

The performance of the DRDO-designed 'Excalibur' assault rifle in trials last month at the Armament Research and Development Establishment in Pune has further enthused the Army.

Sandeep Unnithan | Mail Today | New Delhi, July 5, 2015 | UPDATED 08:52 IST

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An OFB officer with the indigenous Excalibur 5.56mm assault rifle.

The Indian Army has decided to go for an indigenous assault rifle to replace the problematic INSAS rifles. The decision that could save thousands of crores in foreign exchange and boost local manufacture was taken recently by Army Chief General Dalbir Singh. The Army then cancelled a problematic Rs 4,848 crore order for importing Multi Caliber Assault Rifles on June 15-first reported by Mail Today on July 1.

"We are going in for a designed and Made in India rifle in keeping with the government's indigenisation thrusts," senior Army sources told Mail Today.

The performance of the DRDO-designed 'Excalibur' assault rifle in trials last month at the Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE) in Pune has further enthused the Army. The Excalibur had only two stoppages (where the bullet gets stuck in the breech) after 24,000 rounds were fired, close to the Army's specifications of only one stoppage.

New features

The Excalibur is an improved version of the INSAS rifle and fires 5.56x45 mm ammunition. It has full-automatic capability over the INSAS which can only fire a three-round burst. The Excalibur barrel is shorter by 4 mm, has a side folding butt stock and features a Picatinny rail, a universal mount that allows a range of weapon sights and sensors to be fitted on the rifle.

DRDO officials say it will take the OFB's Rifle Factory Ishapore at least eight months to incorporate design changes suggested by the ARDE and field the first prototypes of what they are calling the 'Modified INSAS Rifle' (MIR). Changes suggested after trials include a smaller handguard and improved polycarbonate magazine.

If the Excalibur/MIR clears trials, it could be in the hands of infantry soldiers within two years, DRDO officials say. The DRDO is designing a second version of the Excalibur, the AR-2 that fires 7.62x39 mm rounds used by AK-47. The AR-2 will be offered as an alternative to the Russianorigin assault rifle.

The Army's 2011 tender was for a Multi Caliber Assault Rifle or for a weapon that could fire INSAS and AK-47 ammunition with a barrel change.

Five international firms - Beretta of Italy, Israeli Weapons Industries (IWI), Colt Defense of the US, Ceska Zbplojovka of Czech Republic and SiG Sauer of Switzerland-were shortlisted for the trials.

However, Army officials now admit the specifications were poorly drafted and unrealistic.

Friday 31 July 2015

Mortar recovered from Gurdaspur terrorists puzzles analysts

Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said that the terrorists had come from Pakistan.

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THE RELATEDS

File photograph of a 60 mm light mortar in use.

Tuesday 28 July 2015

How Punjab averted an India-Pakistan conflict

The state's model of heightened public awareness and investment in specialised police units shows how others can overcome terrorist strikes.

Monday 20 July 2015

How voices caused greater damage than bullets during 26/11

The persistent command and control, possibly the first for any terrorist strike in history, made it so unique.

Thursday 16 July 2015

India-Pakistan diplomatic visa freeze

According to government sources, the freeze began last month when Pakistan refused to issue visas to two yoga instructors.

MAIL

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India-Pakistan diplomatic visa freeze

According to government sources, the freeze began last month when Pakistan refused to issue visas to two yoga instructors.

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Sunday 12 July 2015

India wants to expand footprint in Central Asia: Modi to ask Tajikistan for lease of ex-Soviet airbase

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Saturday 4 July 2015

Army zeroes in on Made in India rifles to replace INSAS

The performance of the DRDO-designed 'Excalibur' assault rifle in trials last month at the Armament Research and Development Establishment in Pune has further enthused the Army.

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