'Amidst the criticism over the handling of the coronavirus crisis, the Indian government has decided to go ahead with an arms deal with Israel worth hundreds of millions of dollars. According to a statement released by the Indian government, Israel will supply the Indian military with 16,479 Negev light machine guns, despite growing concerns over the health emergency facing the country of 1.3 billion people.
'Exactly twenty years ago, on 20 March 2000, thirty-five Sikh men were massacred by armed assailants in Chitti Singhpora village in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district. Nearly everyone in the village recalls the evening in the exact same way: the assailants turned up at around 7:30 pm, lined the men up in front of the two central gurdwaras on the pretext of a routine ‘crackdown’, shot them dead, and disappeared into the night. Hidden amongst lush apple orchards, the village is hard to find, except for a yellow banner marking its entrance.
'Earlier this month, a resident of Aglar village (name withheld by request) in south Kashmir’s Shopian district received a call from an Army officer, asking him to deposit his private vehicle at the local Army camp by evening. The man did that, turning over the car’s keys to Army personnel. Next morning, he collected the car. It had been used during the night. His is not a one-off case. In at least two villages of Shopian, residents say it has become a regular practice for the Army to call owners of commercial and private vehicles, and use their vehicles at night — for free.
'Speaking at the Raisina Dialogue 2020 here on Thursday, chief of defence staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat pointed a finger at nations that sponsored terror and urged the international community to isolate them. But he also suggested a controversial remedy for dealing with Kashmiri children influenced by “radicalisation”: that they be “put in de-radicalisation camps”. “Terrorism is here to stay so long as there are states that will sponsor terrorism and use terrorists as proxies, make weapons and funding available for them.
'The Army will take action if it receives orders to reclaim Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), Army chief Gen. Manoj Mukund Naravane said Saturday. Gen. Naravane pointed out that there's a parliamentary resolution that all of Jammu and Kashmir, including the region occupied by Pakistan, belongs to India. If Parliament wants it, then PoK should belong to India, he said. When the Army gets orders to that effect, it will "definitely" take action, he added...'
'Jawaharlal Nehru University’s (JNU) security expenditure jumped 82% in just one year, but the number of security guards deployed on campus has seen a drastic cut, according to documents reviewed by HuffPost India. Campus security was overhauled four months ago, in September 2019, when a corps of close to 400 security guards with years of experience in JNU was replaced by just 250 former military troopers. The new employees were provided by a private security agency, Cyclops Security And Allied Services Pvt.
'Army Chief General Bipin Rawat, known for his affinity for controversial remarks, on Thursday criticised people leading protests over the new citizenship law. He said leadership is not about guiding masses, including students, into carrying out “arson and violence.” His comments drew sharp reactions from opposition leaders. “Leaders are not those who lead people in inappropriate directions, as we are witnessing in a large number of university and college students, the way they are leading masses of crowds to carry out arson and violence in our cities and towns.
'Army chief, General Bipin Rawat, who will retire on December 31 unless the government elevates him to the newly-created post of “chief of defence staff”, has drawn charges of political partisanship by criticising student leaders involved in protests against the new Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or (CAA). Addressing a gathering in New Delhi, he said: “Leaders are those who lead people in the right direction.
'A hawala operator and seven Indian Navy sailors based in Visakhapatnam, Karwar and Mumbai have been arrested for passing on “critical” information to Pakistan, in a case of entrapment on social media by agents posing as women interested in them. The case was cracked by the Andhra Pradesh Police, working in close coordination with the naval and central intelligence agencies. Navy sources told ThePrint that the seven sailors were arrested following sustained surveillance over the last few weeks, under operation ‘Dolphin’s Nose’.
'Minutes after retired Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa attacked the Pakistani claim that IAF bombers dropped their payloads in haste and missed their target on February 26 when they bombed a Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camp in Balakot, Christine Fair – an expert on South Asian political and military affairs – said the IAF story of the operation and its aftermath is based on ‘dubious’ claims.
