The Hindu – Top LeT militant killed in encounter in Srinagar

Political activists, guerilla fighter, terrorist ? Fake encounter or death in an exchange of fire ? Who to believe ? Man in Blue

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

Srinagar, 23 May 2013.  The District Police and Special Operations Group killed a militant, Hilal Maulvi, belonging to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), during an early morning raid on his hideout in the congested Fatehkadal area on Thursday. The militant from Palhalan, Pattan, was one of the most wanted men in Jammu and Kashmir.

Sources said that the gunbattle lasted for about an hour, though the militant was believed to have died within 15 minutes of firing. This is the first time after several years that an encounter has taken place between the police and the militants in downtown Srinagar, once the hub of separatist militancy and politics.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Srinagar, Syed Ashiq Hussain Bukhari, confirmed to The Hindu that the militant killed in the gunbattle near Chinkral Mohalla, between Habbakadal and Fatehkadal, was identified as Hilal Maulvi of Palhalan, Pattan. He said that the raid was conducted on specific information about the militant’s presence at the hideout. As soon as the holed up militant found himself cordoned, he lobbed at
least four hand grenades and shifted to three different houses, but was finally gunned down by the police, Mr. Bukhari said.

Hilal Maulvi, according to the SSP, was a top-ranking LeT commander who was also involved in a fidayeen attack at a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp at Police Public School at Bemina, in Srinagar outskirts, on March 13, this year. Two Pakistani militants of LeT and five CRPF men died in that gunbattle.

Mr. Bukhari said that the two militants killed, and also the arrested militant from his hideout at Qamarwari area, had stayed with Hilal Maulvi at his home in Palhalan village a number of times.

One Chinese pistol was reportedly among the things recovered from the site of the encounter. Mr. Bukhari said that three policemen sustained injuries in the encounter.

Even as the police and security forces had described Hilal Maulvi as “LeT’s most wanted militant in North Kashmir,” separatist political groups, including Syed Ali Shah Geelani-led faction of the Hurriyat Conference, had repeatedly mentioned him as a “political activist.” They have claimed in their statements that Maulvi was not associated with any guerrilla group but had gone underground due to continued raids on his home and harassment to the family.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/top-let-militant-killed-in-encounter-in-srinagar/article4742117.ece?homepage=true

The Asian Age – PM talks tough to Li on Ladakh intrusion

Parul Chandra, Asian Age Correspondent

New Delhi, 20 May 2013. Doing some tough talking with visiting Chinese Premier Li Kequiang on Sunday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh raised the issue of the recent incursion by PLA troops in Ladakh’s Depsang area, and emphasised the need for “peace and tranquillity” along the undemarcated Line of Actual Control.

Mr Li arrived earlier on a blazing Sunday afternoon for a three-day visit, his first trip abroad as Premier.Sources said two other issues flagged “upfront” by the PM at the “restricted” hour-long meeting, with only a few aides present, were India’s concerns on water flows of trans-border rivers and the need to address trade imbalances.

This was followed by a dinner attended by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Leaders of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley and CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat.

The PM stressed the need for a swifter resolution of the vexed boundary issue in a “firm but constructive manner”, the sources said.

The Chinese PM, in turn, is learnt to have raised the Dalai Lama’s presence in India and what Beijing sees as his political activities here. Mr Li was, however, firmly told India respected the Dalai Lama as a spiritual leader, and that he did not have any political rights here.

Sunday’s discussions set the stage for the longer format of delegation-level talks Monday, where the incursion and the boundary question are expected to dominate the discussions.

http://www.asianage.com/india/pm-talks-tough-li-ladakh-intrusion-095

The Tribune – China has chance to explain Ladakh incursion: Ex-envoy Nalin Surie

K V Prasad, Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 18. Suggesting that the recent Ladakh incursion by China has cast a “dark shadow” over its relations with India, a former envoy has said the Beijing leadership after having resolved the issue in a mature manner will have the opportunity to tell New Delhi the reason behind the move.

As new Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrives here tomorrow on his first overseas visit to any country after assuming office, former Indian Ambassdor to China Nalin Surie feels Premier Li and his team have an opportunity to explain why the incident occurred. “It is an advantage for Premier Li and his team to explain why it happened while India can understand the aspirations of the new Chinese leadership,” Surie said in an interaction here today.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Office had recently told Indian mediapesons that the Ladakh incursion was an “isolated incident”, which Surie felt was not an adequate explanation.

Surie, who succeeded current National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon as Indian Ambassador to China, said the new Chinese leadership had been groomed for the task and was well aware of the aspirations of the country and the world.

Referring to the recent statement by Li during an interaction with an Indian youth delegation that it was time to look ahead, Surie said while it was good to think of the future, this constant testing by Beijing in the form of Ladakh incursion sets back the trust that should be built in the relationship between the two most populous neighbours in Asia.

Surie, who retired last year after serving as the Indian High Commissioner in the United Kingdom, felt while there were no differences between the Chinese leadership in government and military, whoever ordered the Chinese platoon to move into the Ladakh region made an “error of judgement”.

Citing his lecture at a conference on Sino-Indian relations at Thrissur, Kerala, earlier this year, Suire said both India and China were too big and growing in power to be contained and even when India was less powerful, both countries were not susceptible to containment.

The relationship between the two countries would in the foreseeable future continue to be a mix of competition and cooperation, he said, adding that the key resentment in Beijing was that while its rise was seen as being threatening, India’s rise wasn’t.

It is an advantage for Premier Li and his team to explain why it happened while India can understand the aspirations of the new Chinese leadership.
—Nalin Surie, former Indian envoy

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130519/main2.htm

The Tribune – India’s shame: 3,000 child soldiers involved in armed conflicts; Report finds 500 child soldiers in N-E, J&K; 2,500 in Naxal-hit states

Bijay Sankar Bora, Tribune News Service

Guwahati, May 16. At least 3,000 children, 500 in Northeast and Jammu and Kashmir and about 2,500 in Naxal-affected states of the country, are working for armed militant/rebel groups. It has been disclosed by the Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) in its just released report titled ‘India’s Child Soldiers’.

“The recruitment of child soldiers by the armed groups, including the Naxalites, is rampant and at least 3,000 children currently remain involved in armed conflicts. This estimate of child soldiers is conservative considering that the Maoists follow the policy of forcibly recruiting at least one cadre from each Adivasi family,” stated Suhas Chakma, Director of Asian Centre for Human Rights.

This report which is the first ever comprehensive study on the subject in India, accused the Government of India of defending the records of the armed opposition groups, officially designated as terrorist groups, on the recruitment of child soldiers before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

“India in its first report on the implementation of the optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict to the UN Committee in 2011 stated that there is no recruitment of child soldiers, including by the armed groups in India,” the ACHR report states.

The ACHR, besides citing 11 cases of forcible recruitment of child soldiers by the armed groups, presented a number of photographs of child soldiers surrendering with their arms before then Home Minister P Chidambaram and Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi in 2011 and 2012.

The ACHR report mentions: “Article 4 of the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict states that armed opposition groups should not, under any circumstance, recruit or use in hostilities persons under the age of 18 years and the government shall take all feasible measures to prevent such recruitment and use, including the adoption of legal measures necessary to prohibit and criminalise such practices.

The Asian Centre for Human Rights urged the Government of India to inquire as to why the recruitment of child soldiers by the officially designated terror groups was concealed from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and take appropriate actions against the officials who are effectively ended up whitewashing the records of the armed groups on the recruitment of child soldiers.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130517/main6.htm

BBC News – Pakistan inmate Sanaullah Ranjay dies in India hospital

Thursday, 9 may 2013. A Pakistani prisoner who was attacked by a fellow inmate at a high-security prison in Indian-administered Kashmir has died in hospital, doctors say.

Doctors say Sanaullah Ranjay, who was in a coma, died of multi-organ failure at a hospital in India’s Chandigarh city early on Thursday.

Ranjay suffered injuries in the attack at Kot Bhalwal jail in Jammu last week.

He has been in prison for the past 17 years on militancy-related charges.

“His condition was extremely critical. He died early morning,” a doctor at the hospital told the AFP news agency.

Ranjay was attacked by a former Indian army soldier convicted of murder after a row between the two men on 3 May, police said. The former soldier has been arrested and remanded to judicial custody.

The attack on Ranjay happened on the day that an Indian prisoner, who died after being attacked in a Pakistani jail, was cremated in India.

Sarabjit Singh, sentenced to death by Pakistan in 1991 for spying, had been attacked with bricks by inmates in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail a week earlier.

On Tuesday, two members of Ranjay’s family – brother-in-law Mohammed Sehzaad and nephew Mohammed Asif – visited him in hospital in India.

On Wednesday, India’s Supreme Court said it was “pained and concerned” at the attack on Ranjay and wondered why adequate steps were not being taken to protect prisoners.

“We are more concerned why such incidents are happening in jails. Lives of inmates are put in danger. It is a serious matter and can’t be accepted,” the court said.

India says the attack is being investigated and the “guilty will be punished”.

A foreign ministry spokesman said an “advisory had been issued to strengthen security for Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails”.

There were 535 Indian prisoners, including 483 fishermen, in Pakistani jails and 272 Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails, the spokesman said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-22460865

The Tribune – India pulled down a tin-shed in Chumar to end LAC standoff

Ashok Tuteja, Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 7. India did pull down a tin-shed it had started constructing at Chumar close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) to arrive at an understanding with China to end the face-off between the forces of the two countries in Ladakh on Sunday night, sources said today.

The construction of the tin-shed was undertaken by India on April 18, after the Chinese incursion was noticed on April 15 in the Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) Sector.

The Army’s UAVs operating in eastern Ladakh has confirmed that the Chinese platoon camping in Depsang valley has gone back to its side of the LAC.

New Delhi is still wondering why the Chinese carried out the incursion when the two countries were conducted negotiations at almost every level of the government to peacefully resolve the boundary dispute.

“Perhaps, the Chinese want to bring the border issue right to the fore at the highest level of the government to expedite a border agreement,” sources said. But at no point of time during the three-week standoff, India underestimated the Chinese intrusion or overestimated the development.

Sources said Beijing had proposed to India about two-three months back a border defence cooperation agreement to expand friendly contacts between the troops of the two countries and better communication between them.

India was still studying the agreement. It might be discussed further between the two sides when External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid visits Beijing on May 9-10 to prepare the ground for the Chinese Premier’s trip to New Delhi later this month. The proposed agreement would, however, in no way replace the 2005 border accord between the two nations.

Narrating the sequence of events ever since the Chinese incursion was detected by India, sources said New Delhi was alerted on April 15 that one Chinese patrol had come to the DBO Sector, followed by some aerial sorties. India also did an aerial sortie and noticed that the Chinese had pitched tents there. India immediately took measures to counter the Chinese and this was when the forces of the two countries came face-to-face.

Indian Army commanders took up the matter with their Chinese counterparts. On April 16, Gautam Bambawale, Joint Secretary (East Asia) in the External Affairs Ministry, who also heads the India-China mechanism for border management, took up the matter with his Chinese counterpart. When there was no satisfactory response, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai called the Chinese Ambassador to his office at the South Block on April 18 and firmly told him that India was determined to ensure the status quo as it existed on April 15.

Indian Ambassador to China S Jaishankar had also made it clear to his Chinese interlocutors that New Delhi was not prepared for any bargain and that the incursion could also affect bilateral ties. On April 18 itself, India also started building the ‘tin-shed’, which was brought down only after the Chinese removed their tents.

On April 25, India and China had arrived at some kind of an arrangement. However, on April 30, New Delhi was told that there were gaps of perception on the LAC. India told Beijing that this was not the time for going into minute details of how the Chinese incursion should end. The threat to cancel External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid’s visit to Beijing might have also helped in ending the face-off situation. The breakthrough came at the flag meetings held over the last week-end. Asked why did the Chinese do incursion, the sources said: “We still can’t fathom why it was done.”

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130508/main4.htm

Dawn – Nawaz for Kargil probe if elected

Our Correspondent

New Delhi, 8 May 2013. PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif has said if elected to lead Pakistan again he would set up a commission of inquiry to investigate the Kargil military adventure by former army chief General Pervez Musharraf.

In an interview broadcast on Tuesday, Mr Sharif told CNN-IBN’s Karan Thapar that he wanted to take relations with India to the high trajectory of February 1999 when he signed the Lahore accord with then Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

“That was a new chapter that was being written in the history of the two countries. I was very happy to go to Wagah border to receive him there, to accord him a very warm welcome and he had a lot of other people also with him on the bus and suddenly I saw Mr Dev Anand jumping out of the bus and I was very happy to see him, a wonderful person. He also happens to be from the same college as I was.”

Will extremists like Hafiz Saeed be brought under control, will his hate speeches stop because it annoys India and it undermines the relationship? “I think the state must not allow any such speeches to be made by anybody, including Hafiz sahab,” Mr Sharif said, adding that assertions of the ISI’s alleged involvement in the Mumbai attack would also be investigated.

“I think such issues certainly need investigation, including the one which happened in Kargil. I think an inquiry commission should be held on Kargil as well,” Mr Sharif said. He said Gen Musharraf’s role in it would be put under sharp focus.

Dawn Monitoring Desk adds: When asked if he saw Kashmir as a core issue or as one of many issues which must be urgently tackled, he said: “It is a very important issue. I think we should not rule that out and this is an issue that does not let us move forward in the manner that we really want to move forward. So I think this issue needs to be resolved peacefully, to the satisfaction of not only both countries but also of the
Kashmiri people. So I think all the three parties must have full satisfaction that the issue is being resolved.”

Mr Sharif said Pakistan didn’t see the Kashmir issue as an obstacle to all other aspects of the bilateral relationship and it was moving forward on trade and other sectors.

“But India should also pay or appear to be paying attention to the problem of Kashmir and get this problem out of the way, solve it to the satisfaction of all the three parties and if that can be done, what is the harm? If India is also satisfied, Pakistan is satisfied and so are the people of Kashmir. I think we should be looking forward to exploring such an avenue.”

Commenting on a proposal to put the Kashmir issue ‘on backburner’ while pursuing improvement of trade ties between the two countries he said that was already being done but “let’s not let such issues be on the backburner indefinitely”.

“I think both countries must feel the urge to solve this very important problem.”

He said a ‘back channel’ set up by him and Mr Vajpayee should be reactivated. “I used to meet my man once a week and I was told that the Indian prime minister would meet his man once a week and those two people were meeting very frequently with each other. So that was working.”

http://beta.dawn.com/news/812519/nawaz-for-kargil-probe-if-elected

BBC News – Sanaullah Ranjay’s family due to visit India

Tuesday 7 May 2013. The family of a Pakistani prisoner who was attacked by a fellow inmate at a high-security prison in Indian-administered Kashmir is due to visit him in hospital, reports say.

Sanaullah Ranjay’s condition in an intensive care unit at a hospital in Chandigarh city continues to be “critical”, doctors say.

Ranjay suffered injuries in the attack at Kot Bhalwal jail in Jammu last week.

He has been in prison for the past 17 years on militancy-related charges.

Police said Ranjay was attacked by a former Indian army soldier convicted of murder on Friday morning after a row between the two men.

Pakistan High Commission spokesman Manzoor Ali Memon told AFP news agency that Ranjay’s relatives from Pakistan were due to visit him in hospital on Tuesday.

The Press Trust of India news agency reported that the Indian High Commission in Islamabad had granted visas to Ranjay’s brother-in-law and cousin.

On Monday, Pakistan’s top diplomat in India, Salman Bashir, visited Ranjay at the hospital.

“His condition is critical. The outcome [chance of survival] is bleak,” Mr Bashir told reporters.

The attack on Ranjay happened on a day when an Indian prisoner, convicted of spying in Pakistan and killed in a Pakistani jail last week, was cremated in India.

Sarabjit Singh, sentenced to death by Pakistan in 1991, died after being attacked with bricks by inmates in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail.

Pakistan’s government has expressed “deep concern” over the attack on Ranjay and said it was “obvious retaliation” for the killing of Sarabjit Singh.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-22430296

The Tribune – Sanaullah critical, Pakistan envoy to meet him at PGI today

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh\New Delhi, May 5. The condition of Sanaullah Khan, the Pakistani prisoner who was brutally attacked in a jail on the outskirts of Jammu three days ago, continues to be critical. Though his metabolic parameters are now settling, PGI officials say he has not shown any neurological improvement. He is in deep coma.

He is still on ventilator. His blood pressure continues to be maintained with the help of drugs. Doctors said that they would wait for 48 to 72 hours to stabilise him before taking a decision on any medical intervention.

Dr SN Mathuriya, Head, Neurosurgery, and Dr YK Batra, Professor In charge of Trauma ICU, have been closely monitoring his condition in the trauma ICU.

India has granted permission to Pakistan High Commissioner Salman Bashir to meet Sanaullah, official sources said. Pakistan diplomats, stationed in New Delhi, have to seek the government’s permission if they desire to visit any other city in the country.

Bashir would leave for Chandigarh tomorrow morning, sources said. He would be accompanied by Press Attache Manzoor Ali Memon. Delegates from Pakistan High Commission, who reached the city in the wee hours on Saturday (around 3.30 am), have paid several visits to the PGI to have a first hand information on the condition of the prisoner.

The delegates visited the ICU, where Sanaullah is admitted, twice and posed queries to the doctors about the treatment.

The entire area around the ICU has been fortified with security officials.

Sanaullah was attacked on Friday morning. He was first taken to the Government Medical College and Hospital, Jammu, where he was referred to the PGI, Chandigarh. He was airlifted and rushed to the PGI in the evening the same day.

The incident occurred a day after Indian convict Sarabjit Singh died after a brutal attack by fellow inmates in a Lahore prison.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130506/main7.htm

BBC News – India and China ‘pull back troops’ in disputed border area

Monday, 6 May 2013. India and China have pulled back troops from disputed territory near the two countries’ de facto border in the Himalayas, Indian media reports say.

Soldiers were said to have set up camps facing each other on the ill-defined frontier in Ladakh region last month.

The two sides held a series of talks to resolve the row and the troops were withdrawn on Sunday, the reports added.

The two countries dispute several Himalayan border areas and fought a brief war in 1962.

Tensions flare up from time to time. They have held numerous rounds of border talks, but all have been unsuccessful so far.

Reports in the Indian media quoting official sources said that Indian and Chinese commanders ended a near three-week long stand-off on the border after four rounds of talks, ordering troops to remove camps 300 metres apart on Sunday evening.

There has been no official confirmation of the development from either side yet.

Indian officials had accused Chinese troops of straying 10 km (six miles) into Indian territory on 15 April and putting up tents in the Depsang valley in Ladakh, in eastern Kashmir. China had denied reports of an incursion.

Sunday’s reported pull-out comes days ahead of Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid’s visit to China, ahead of a scheduled visit by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to India.

Mr Khurshid is visiting China on 9 May, ahead of Mr Li’s visit on 20 May for his first overseas trip.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-22423999