Surgical strikes achieve tactical closure, not strategic detente: Former NATGRID CEO

Surgical strikes achieve tactical closure, not strategic detente: Former NATGRID CEO

Military power is never about the number of troops, tanks, ships or aircrafts. If military power was all a country needed to establish superiority, America would not have been beaten by Vietnam, the Soviet Union would not have been routed by Afghan tribes and the juggernaut that is the Indian Army would not have been held at bay by a few thousand Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.

A country’s military power is actually determined by a combination of economic realities, governance frameworks, national will and strategic thinking – which work together to deliver a punch worthy of its weight.

Surgical strikes : Comparing India’s military power to Pakistan’s from this perspective actually yields a startling conclusion.

In 1999, Pakistan’s army chief at the time was mid-air when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif decided to sack him. Denied permission to land in Pakistan and faced with the option of making an emergency landing on Indian soil, the sacked general decided to land in Karachi anyway. He communicated his orders to his military subordinates through the civilian aviation channel and by the time his plane landed, Pervez Musharraf was firmly back in the saddle while Sharif had been toppled off his. That is the power of the Pakistani military.

Now compare the Pakistani army’s swiftness to India’s handling of the Kandahar hijacking in 1999. When the Indian Airlines flight was taken over by terrorists and parked in Amritsar over the course of its long journey, the Indian establishment could not decide between blocking the aircraft’s departure or letting it go. That ambivalence cost India the advantage it had in being able to control events happening on its own turf.Read more.

Also Read:

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• Indian channel 'forged' interview of Pakistani official: Pakistan
• Rahul attacks PM Modi over surgical strikes

Sell-by date of Pakistan's anachronistic approach over: India

Sell-by date of Pakistan's anachronistic approach over: India

The "sell-by date" of Pakistan's "anachronistic approach" is long over and the country should "abandon" its "futile quest" for Kashmir, India has said in a strong rebuttal to Islamabad's allegations that New Delhi is escalating the current situation.

India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin strongly rejected remarks by Pakistan's envoy Maleeha Lodhi, who said during a General Assembly debate on 'Report of the Secretary General on the Work of the Organisation' that India has created conditions that pose a threat to peace and security in the region by its recent "declarations and actions."

Akbaruddin responded sharply by saying that Pakistan's claims in the UN are finding no resonance and it should abandon its quest for Kashmir, which is an integral part of India.

"Our response to Pakistan is consistent. Abandon your futile quest. The state of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and will remain so," Akbaruddin said asserting that no amount of "misuse" of international platforms by Pakistan will change that reality.

"The sell-by date of Pakistan's anachronistic approach is long over," he said on Wednesday.

Akbaruddin said claims by Pakistan, a global epicenter of terrorism, on Kashmir find no resonance amongst the international community, with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif raising the Kashmir issue in his General Assembly address also finding no support.Read more

How India is isolating Pakistan within Saarc

How India is isolating Pakistan within Saarc

The terrorist attack at an army administrative base in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday, which killed 17 soldiers, has reduced the political space for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to travel to Islamabad in November to attend the Saarc Summit. But, in recent months, New Delhi has shown uncharacteristic efficiency to reach out to Saarc members, other than Pakistan.

As part of the Modi government’s “neighbourhood first” policy, India has hosted or will be hosting the heads of states or governments of the six South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) members.

Alongside its Saarc outreach, the PM has raised the issue of terror havens in Pakistan and its export of terror at international platforms, most recently at the G20 Summit in China and the East Asia Summit in Laos. The Indian side, led by Vice-President M Hamid Ansari, raised Pakistan’s complicity in protecting outfits at the ongoing Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit in Venezuela.

While the PM will skip this year’s United Nations General Assembly, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is set to raise the involvement of terror outfits based in Pakistan in carrying out attacks on Indian soil — Pathankot last year and Uri now. She is also likely to tell the world how Pakistani government bombs its own people in Balochistan.(more)

Also Read: 17 soldiers killed, 23 injured in cross-LoC strike on Uri camp.

Terror being 'incubated' in India's neighbourhood

Terror being 'incubated' in India's neighbourhood

With Pakistan obviously in mind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said terrorism was being “incubated in India’s neighbourhood” and pressed for action without making any distinction against groups like Lashkar-e-Toiba, Taliban and ISIS who share the “same philosophy of hate, murder and killings”.

In his address to the joint sitting of US Congress here, he said terrorism has to be fought with “one voice” as he commended the American Parliament for sending out a clear message by refusing to “reward” those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains, an apparent reference to the blocking of sale of 8 F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan.

In the course of his 45-minute speech, he covered all major aspects of the growing relationship between India and the US, particularly strategic ties and civil nuclear cooperation, and emphasised that the two countries should leave “constraints of the past” behind as the “foundations of the future are firmly in place”.

“India lives as one; India grows as one and India celebrates as one,” Modi said. “For my government, the Constitution is its real holy book. And, in that holy book, freedom of faith, speech and franchise, and equality of all citizens, regardless of background, are enshrined as fundamental rights.”

Read more.

6 killed, 20 injured in two bomb attacks in Turkey

Six persons, including two police officers, were killed and 20 others were injured in two bomb attacks in Turkey's Sirnak province on Monday, local media reported.

In the first attack, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants placed explosives under manhole cover and detonated it with remote control while a police vehicle was passing, killing four and injuring 19 people, Xinhua news agency reported.

Two police officers were killed and one other was injured in the second attack by the PKK members in Van province. The bomb was detonated with remote control targeting an armoured police car.Read More

Indian worker in Australia tells court his pro-ISIS post was 'sarcastic'

Indian worker in Australia tells court his pro-ISIS post was 'sarcastic'

An Indian-origin aviation worker in Australia who was sacked last year for posting pro-Islamic State messages on Facebook has told a court that his comments were "sarcastic".

Nirmal Singh was facing the 'Fair Work Commission' to argue that his dismissal was 'unfair' by his previous employer Aerocare and was seeking $7,000 in lost wages.

The Commission heard Singh had written "We All Support ISIS" above a shared post from HT (Hizb ut-Tahrir) Australia about the shooting of police account Curtis Cheng by Islamic youth Farhad Khalil Mohammad Jabar in Sydney.

There were five posts in total that concerned Aerocare, two of which included pictures of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Under cross-examination by solicitor Stephen Hughes for Aerocare, Singh said he made the posts on Facebook under a different name and believed he was conversing with a "secret group".(more)

Taliban supremo Mansour killed in US drone attack in Pakistan

Afghan Taliban supremo Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a rare US drone strike deep inside Pakistan, Afghanistan announced today, inflicting a body blow to the insurgents and a removing a major "threat" to the fragile peace process in war-torn Afghanistan.

Mansour and another militant were targeted in a precision air strike by multiple unmanned drones operated by US Special Operations forces yesterday as the duo rode in a vehicle in a remote area near Ahmad Wal town in the restive Baluchistan province close to the Afghan border, US officials said.

The drone strike, which US officials said was authorised by President Barack Obama, showed America was ready to target the Taliban leadership in Pakistan, which Afghanistan has repeatedly accused of sheltering the militants.

Afghanistan's main spy agency said Mansour, said to be in his early 50s, was killed in a US drone attack inside Pakistan.

"Mansour was being closely monitored for a while... Until he was targeted along with other fighters aboard a vehicle... in Balochistan," the National Directorate of Security said in a brief statement today.Read more.