Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Pakistan: Turning A Blind Eye In Punjab – Analysis
By Tushar Ranjan Mohanty
On January 20, 2019, Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) officials of Punjab Police killed two terrorists, identified as Abdur Rehman and Kashif Langra, in a shootout in Gujranwala District of Punjab. The suspects allegedly belonged to Islamic State (IS, also Daesh) and were gunned down in an exchange of fire, an unnamed CTD spokesperson disclosed, claiming that the two were accomplices of IS ‘local commander’ Zeeshan. The deceased were wanted for their involvement in attacks on Security Forces (SFs) and kidnapping of local and foreign citizens, the spokesperson added.
A day earlier, on January 19, 2019, IS ‘local commander’ Zeeshan was killed during an encounter with CTD personnel in Sahiwal District. Three civilians, including a husband, wife and their teenage daughter, were also killed during the encounter.
According to partial data compiled by the Institute for Conflict Management (ICM), Punjab has recorded at least six terrorism-related fatalities (three civilians and three terrorists] in 2019, thus far (data till February 24, 2019). During the corresponding period of 2018, the Province recorded eight terrorism-related fatalities (seven terrorists and one SF trooper).
Through 2018, Punjab registered 39 fatalities (17 civilians, seven SF personnel, and 15 terrorists) as against 158 such fatalities (32 civilians, 27 SF personnel, and 99 terrorists) in 2017. The 2018 fatalities were the second lowest recorded in terrorism related incidents in the Province since 2006, when seven fatalities was recorded.
There were 17 civilian fatalities in 2018, the second lowest in this category since 2006, when six civilian deaths were recorded. There were a total of 32 civilian fatalities in 2017.
The number of fatalities among SF personnel also came down to seven in 2018 from 27 in 2017. Significantly, fatalities among terrorists also came down considerably, from 99 in 2017 to just 15 in 2018. SFs are now less active, with lower terrorist mobilization and fewer operations on the ground.
According to the SATP database, two incidents of explosion were recorded in Punjab in 2018, as against five in 2017, and the resultant fatalities declined from 56 in 2017 to 14 in 2018. Punjab also witnessed two suicide attacks in 2018 as against four in 2017, with fatalities dropping from 55 in 2017 to 14 in 2018.
The number of major incidents decreased from 20 in 2017 to just six in 2018 and resultant fatalities from 146 in 2017 to 31 in 2018, a 78.76 per cent decline. The most prominent major attack of the year came in the night of March 14, 2018, when a suicide bomber hit a check post outside the Tablighi Jamaat Markaz in the Raiwind Town of Lahore, the provincial capital of Punjab, in which nine people, including five Policemen, were killed and another 35 were injured. The attack was claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). In a statement sent to AFP, it threatened more attacks on Police in retaliation for killing their “associates” in Punjab.
According to a report of the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), fatalities dropped by 65.58 per cent in Punjab from 154 in 2017to 53 in 2018. The report said this was because of six major and 9,157 intelligence-based operations (IBOs) by SFs.
The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab Police claimed on September 17, 2018, that they had neutralisedthe terror network of TTP and Hizb-ul-Ahrar (HuA) which had carried out terror attacks. Notably, one of the major success came on March 29, 2018, when the Punjab Police CTD and the Intelligence Bureau neutralised “the biggest network” of TTP in the Province during a joint operation at different places, and arrested six terrorists who had been dispatched by the TTP leadership from a Madrasa located at Gajumata near Ferozepur Road in Lahore to hit the targets. The network had carried out two major suicide attacks –on Army personnel on Bedian Road on April 5, 2017, in which seven persons, including two civilians, four Army personnel and one suicide bomber was killed; and another on Policemen on Ferozepur Road near Arfa Karim Tower on July 24, 2017, in which 17 civilians, one Policemen and one suicide bomber were killed.
Despite broad improvements, several instances through 2018 demonstrated that the Province remained a fertile ground for fundamentalist and extremist groups.
Four people were arrested in Ali Town of Multan District in Punjab on February 14, 2019, for their involvement in hate speech. The action was taken over a speech delivered by one of the apprehended suspects at a mosque in Ali Town on December 28, 2018. In the speech made over a loudspeaker, the primary suspect allegedly incited the audience with statements of a sectarian nature and provoked them against the Government of Pakistan and incumbent rulers, according to the first information report (FIR) registered on the complaint of a Police official against six named and 40 to 45 unidentified people.
Earlier on January 29-30, over 90 members of hard-line religious parties were arrested from different parts of Punjab for holding demonstrations against the Supreme Court’s decision to reject a review plea against the acquittal of Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman long held in a blasphemy case. Punjab Police spokesperson Nabila Ghazanfar observed that most of the arrests were made from Lahore, Gujranwala and Rawalpindi: “Police have arrested more than 90 activists of different religious parties mostly of Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) cadres, on Tuesday [January 29] and Wednesday [January 30] for creating law and order situation.” On October 31, 2018, the SC reversed the judgements of the Lahore High Court as well as the trial court, setting aside the conviction and death sentence awarded to Aasia Bibi. Following the Supreme Court decision acquitting and ordering the release of Asia Bibi, supporters of TLP took to the streets in several parts of Punjab, including Lahore, Islamabad, and Multan. The Punjab Home Department was forced to impose Section 144 barring the gathering of people in public places. Section 144 was imposed across the Province from October 31 to November 10, 2018.
Aasia Bibi, also known as Asia Noreen, a Christian woman, belongs to Ittan Walivillage in the Sheikhupura District. She was sentenced to death on November 7, 2010, for blasphemy allegedly insulting Prophet Muhammad during a row with neighbouring women in June 2009. Noreen denied that she had committed blasphemy and asserted that she had been accused by her neighbours to “settle an old score”. On November 7, 2010, Muhammed Naveed Iqbal, a judge at the district Court of Sheikhupura, sentenced her to death by hanging. Additionally, a fine of the equivalent of USD 1,100was imposed.
The Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP, the Here I Am Movement, Pakistan, derived from the declaration “Here I am to do thy bidding, O Lord”) is Pakistan’s newest far-right religious party, founded by Islamic preacher Khadim Hussain Rizvi on August 1, 2015. It has created a strong base across Punjab in particular, as well as in other regions of the country.
Moreover, while Islamabad has succeeded in targeting domestically oriented terror groups operating in Punjab and thus controlling anti-state terrorism in Punjab, it has continued to openly supported terror groups in directing attacks against India and Afghanistan, and to thrive in Punjab. Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), the chief conspirator of February 14, 2019, Pulwama attack, among a long succession of others, has been enjoying state and Army patronage in Punjab though it has notionally been banned since 2002. Media commentator Praveen Swami, in a column on Firstpost on July 27, 2018, disclosed that JeM had been secretly building on a 15-acre complex on the outskirts of the city of Bahawalpur—five times the size of its existing headquarters. The complex, the Jaish hopes, will train thousands of young children from the south Punjab countryside to ‘sacrifice’ themselves to the cause of Jihad.
JeM was also allowed to openly and brazenly continue with its anti-India tirade at the behest of its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) masters. While addressing a rally in Bahawalpur District of Punjab on March 1, 2018, a leader of JeM and brother of JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar, Maulvi Mufti Abdul Rauf Asghar, threw a challenge at India, declaring that his cadres were heading towards Delhi and if India could stop them, let it do so. More recently, on November 23, 2018, JeM organized a rally in Faisalabad, Punjab, which was attended by hundreds of its members. According to sources, more than 35 JeM fidayeen (suicide attackers) took an oath to carry out attacks on security establishment in India.
Further, the Hafiz Muhammad Saeed-led Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), the front organisation of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), is also openly engaged in anti-India activities and operates out of its Headquarters in Murdike in the Sheikhupura District of Punjab. Saeed operates freely across the country, holding rallies dominated by anti-India and Islamist hate speech, inciting cadres to wage jihad against India. On December 18, 2018, addressing a rally at Mall Road in Lahore under the banner of Difa-e-Pakistan Council, Saeed threatened, “You forgot Somnath, Modi. The time is near when this war will be fought in your cities not at the borders. You will not be able to hide your terrorism behind curtains.” Most recently, following the February 5, 2018, rally in Lahore addressed by Saeed, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on February 6 issued a note verbale to the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi and registered India’s strong protest at the “continued use of Pakistan controlled territory by extremist and terrorist elements” to freely propagate and promote violence and terror against India.
As long as radicalized forces find fertile ground in Punjab under state patronage, the problem of terrorism will continue to constitute a threat to the entire region.
EDITORIAL - #Pakistan - #Indian Aggression
War between two nuclear-armed states is not an option, and Narendra Modi’s government as well as the Indian establishment are fully aware of this reality. Yet, they have opted for a path of escalation ahead of the upcoming general elections. Modi and his party have attempted endanger the future of the region just so that they can improve their chances in an election. What transpired in the Pulwama region of Indian-occupied Kashmir on February 14 was unfortunate, and it was condemned by Pakistan. One can debate the efficacy of the decisions taken at the highest level in Islamabad afterwards, but there’s no denying that some stock-taking was underway since the Feb 14 attack in Pulwama. If the Modi administration was really after a solution to the problem of terrorism in the region, it could have engaged Pakistan through a backchannel, sharing actionable evidence if there is any. This would have led Pakistan to take action against militants, who are enemies of the region’s peace regardless of where they’re based, and also act a confidence boosting measure between the two neighbours. Alas, the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) has lesser concerns at the moment.
While the Indian civilian and military leadership is on a collision course, what is truly unfortunate for the region is the manner in which many otherwise reasonable voices in the media have conducted themselves in the wake of Indian jets’ incursion.
Meanwhile, in a series of press conferences, the authorities in Islamabad have stated that there will be a response on multiple fronts: political, diplomatic and military. It is important that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government approaches Indian aggression with a level-headedness, meaning that military response should be well-calibrated. The government first should use all diplomatic channels and expose New Delhi’s aggressive posturing. Alongside, the country’s leadership should continue its crackdown on extremists. This is the only way Pakistan can show its sincerity and commitment to the cause of regional peace to the rest of the world, and build a strong case against Modi administration’s destructive policies. In this backdrop, it is imperative on progressive voices on both sides of the international divide to rise above hyper-nationalism and speak in one voice for peace, and against adventurism, by either side.
India’s air strike on Pakistan militant camp escalates tensions, with Islamabad promising retaliation
The incursion follows the deadly February 14 suicide bombing in India’s half of Kashmir that killed at least 40 troops.India said Tuesday its warplanes attacked a militant camp where Pakistan-backed fighters were preparing suicide attacks on its cities, sending tensions between the arch-rivals to a new peak.A “very large number” of militants from the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) group were killed in the nightime attack, according to the foreign ministry, while Pakistan said its fighter jets scrambled to force the Indian jets back and that there were no casualties.
Pakistan’s National Security Committee, after a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, condemned the airstrike and said it would “respond at the time and place of its choosing”.The escalation came after a February 14 suicide bombing claimed by JeM that killed 40 troops in Indian Kashmir, setting off a chain of threats and counter-warnings between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said Delhi acted on “credible intelligence” that fighters from JeM were being trained for another attack. “A very large number of Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen [suicide] action were eliminated,” he said.
“Credible intelligence was received that JeM was attempting another suicide terror attack in various parts of the country, and the fidayeen jihadis were being trained for this purpose,” Gokhale said.“In the face of imminent danger, a pre-emptive strike became absolutely necessary. In an intelligence-led operation, in the early hours of today, India struck the biggest training camp of JeM in Balakot.”
The commander of the camp was Maulana Yusuf Azhar, a brother-in-law of JeM leader Masood Azhar, Gokhale said. A senior Indian government source said that 300 militants had been killed in the strikes, which local media reports said took place at 3.30am. Pakistan downplayed the severity of the air strike, saying its own warplanes had chased off the Indian aircraft, which had released their “payload” in a forested area, causing no casualties and no serious material damage.Kashmir shuts to protest India’s crackdown on activists “Indian aircraft intruded from Muzaffarabad sector,” Pakistani military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said on Twitter early on Tuesday, referring to an area in the Pakistan-held part of Kashmir.Balakot police chief Saghir Hussain Shah said he had sent teams to the area, which he described as a mostly deserted wooded area. “There are no casualties, there are no damages on the ground because of the dropping of the bombs,” he said.Pakistan’s National Security Committee said in a statement that it “strongly rejected Indian claim of targeting an alleged terrorist camp near Balakot and the claim of heavy casualties.”
It said Khan would “engage with global leadership to expose irresponsible Indian policy”.
India’s foreign secretary said it was unlikely that Pakistan was unaware of the training camps. “The existence of such training facilities, capable of training hundreds of jihadis, could not have functioned without the knowledge of the Pakistani authorities,” Gokhale said.‘Don’t mess up with us’: Pakistani general has stark warnings for India.Pakistan denies harbouring JeM, a primarily anti-India group that forged ties with al-Qaeda and has been on a UN terror list since 2001. In December 2001, JeM fighters, along with members of another Pakistan-based militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, launched an attack on India’s parliament, which almost resulted in the two countries going to war for a fourth time.At an international conference on media and conflict on Tuesday, Pakistan’s President Arif Alvi said India has created “hysteria” in the wake of the attack. He said rhetoric “can lead to war”, and warned that “we know how to defend ourselves”. He did not address the strike by Indian fighter jets.
The February 14 suicide bombing in India’s half of Kashmir was the worst attack on Indian forces since the start of the 1989 insurgency in Kashmir.
Insurgents have been demanding either outright independence or union with Pakistan. India routinely accuses Pakistan of arming and training militants who cross the mountainous Himalayan region.
While Pakistan has outlawed JeM and seized its properties in south Punjab’s Bawahalpur area, including religious schools and mosques, India has demanded that JeM leader, Azhar Masood, be listed as a terrorist by the United Nations. China, one of Pakistan’s closest allies and investors in infrastructure, has not supported this move.
The issue is likely to come up on Wednesday, when Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is expected to meet his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj and Russia’s Sergei Lavrov in the Chinese city of Wuzhen. On Tuesday, China’s foreign minister spokesman Lu Kang said: “We hope that both India and Pakistan can exercise restraint and adopt actions that will help stabilise the situation in the region and improve mutual relations.”
These are the 3 locations in #Pakistan that were bombed by #Indian Air Force
SNEHESH ALEX PHILIP
Terrorist training camps of Jaish, Lashkar & Hizbul Mujahideen were hit in Balakot in strikes that lasted 21 minutes.
Indian Air Force’s Mirage 2000 fighter jets bombed three locations in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir early on Tuesday, top military sources told ThePrint.
They said the strikes lasted 21 minutes beginning at 3.45 am.
Balakot, which is 24 km northwest of Muzaffarabad, capital of PoK, was bombed between 3.45 am and 3.53 am. Balakot is in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.
Joint training camps of Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen located in Balakot were targeted, the sources said.
“They had emptied launchpads but not training camps,” one source said, referring to the terrorist infrastructure across the LoC which Pakistan uses to send terrorists to Jammu and Kashmir.
Another location in Muzaffarabad was hit between 3.48 am and 3.55 am, the sources said.
The last to be hit was Chakoti, between 3.58 am and 4.04 am, the source added.
The Indian air strikes come in response to the Jaish suicide bomb attack on a CRPF convoy on 14 February which killed 40 personnel.
News of the strikes were first tweeted by Pakistan’s Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations, Major-General Asif Ghafoor.
“Indian Air Force violated Line of Control”, following which “Pakistan Air Force immediately scrambled” and Indian aircraft went back, he tweeted.
He later followed it up with another tweet saying that the aircraft faced “timely and effective response from Pakistan Air Force” and ended up releasing “payload in haste while escaping which fell near Balakot”. No casualties or damage occurred, the Pakistani military spokesperson added.
Ghafoor later tweeted pictures showing what he said was the “payload” dropped by Indian fighter jets. “Payload of hastily escaping Indian aircrafts fell in open,” he tweeted.
Data available on websites tracking planes indicated that an early warning aircraft of the IAF along with an IL-78 refueler was up in the air around the time the incident was reported.
Indian and Pakistani fighter jets have been on high alert and have been flying increased sorties since the 14 February terror attack in Pulwama in Kashmir in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed.
This report has been updated to indicate that Balakot is in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan and not in PoK.
https://theprint.in/defence/these-are-the-3-locations-in-pok-that-were-bombed-by-indian-air-force/197921/
#Pakistan - Madrassas to military training — how #Balakot emerged as largest breeding ground for JeM
ANANYA BHARDWAJ
Balakot campus was used as a training ground for over 10,000 recruits at a time. It also had madrassas, masjids and control rooms where operations were planned.
Balakot in Mansehra district of Pakistan, one of the terror camps struck by the Indian Air Force Tuesday, emerged as one of the Jaish-e-Mohammed’s largest military training centres in 2001.
The centre was not only used as a training ground for over 10,000 recruits at a time, but also has several madrassas, masjids and control rooms, from where several operations were planned. JeM chief Masood Azhar and his brother Abdul Rauf Asghar are said to be supervising these camps.
According to an intelligence source, there have many inputs about activities being planned and operatives trained at Balakot, especially for ‘fidayeen‘ attacks across India.
Balakot has also found mention in many interrogation reports, and even the Pathankot chargesheet, calling it a major terror training camp of the Jaish.
According to investigators, the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly blast of 2001 too was planned in Balakot.
A major training centre
Lying in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province just outside Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Balakot is a strategic location. It not only has control rooms and centres especially designed to train operatives in suicide attacks, but also madrassas for students, where they acquire jihadist training, the intelligence source said.
“It (Balakot) emerged as a very strategic location as it was closer to both PoK and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A lot of land was donated to Masood and money was given to develop infrastructure to train jihadis. In just a few years, it became a major military recruitment centre for the Jaish,” the source said.
“They have developed a complete system of education where students are given religious (extremist) as well as contemporary education. Students as young as 11 years old are recruited and trained in these centres,” another intelligence source said.
According to the second source, the camp in Balakot is called Madrasah Sayyed Ahmad Shaheed and was built after generous funding to Masood Azhar by several trusts, including the Al Rahmat Trust.
“The centre has water tanks, medical camps, training grounds and simulators, and over 10,000 students are enrolled each year. It is run under direct supervision of Masood, Saifur Rehman and Qari Shah Mansur, who also hold lectures there. It was currently being run by Yusuf Azhar, Masood’s brother-in-law,” the second source said.
Shift from Afghanistan to Balakot
Before 2001, the Jaish had its training camps in Afghanistan, thanks to its closeness to the Taliban.
“Jaish-e-Mohammed follows the Deobandi school of thought, and is thus aligned with the Taliban. Before 2001, the training of its members took place in Afghanistan. However, after the Taliban were toppled, it had to be relocated,” the first intelligence source said.
The job to relocate the Jaish fell upon on Pakistan’s intelligence agency, ISI. Since the Lashkar-e-Taiba too was strong in Pakistan, it did not want the Jaish to eat into the LeT’s space, and so relocated it to Manshera district, closer to PoK.
2005 earthquake and Hafiz Saeed
The 2005 Kashmir earthquake, with its epicentre near Muzaffarabad in PoK, flattened Balakot. At that time, Lashkar-e-Taiba’s Hafiz Saeed came to the rescue with his charity front Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the first intelligence source added.
“Hafiz Saeed then entered the scene with his charity organisation that did a lot of rehabilitation work after the 2005 earthquake. It not only helped rebuild the entire infrastructure but also got in a lot of funds via Saudi Arabia for future infrastructure building,” the source said.
As the funds started pouring in from Saudi, it brought with it the Wahhabi influence.
“It was an attempt to take over strategic Balakot, but they eventually withdrew and JeM took over the place again.”
https://theprint.in/defence/madrassas-to-military-training-how-balakot-emerged-as-largest-breeding-ground-for-jem/198014/
Israeli-made Bombs Used in Pakistan Attack, Indian Media Outlets Say
Security sources say Israeli Rafael's 'Spice 2000' missiles were used against what New Delhi says was a terrorist training camp.
India's air force used Israeli-made bombs in its pre-dawn Tuesday airstrike on neighboring Pakistan, Indian security sources told local news website The Print and other media outlets.
According to the reports, five Mirage jets armed with Israeli-made Spice 2000 smart missiles attacked what New Delhi says was a terrorist training camp. Each missile weighs 1,000 kilograms and operates on pre-fed GPS coordinates. They are also fitted with technology making them invulnerable to jamming or deflection, the sources said.
Pakistan said there were no casualties, while New Delhi called the attack a pre-emptive strike that killed "a very large number" of militants.
The airstrike followed a suicide bombing in India's section of the disputed territory of Kashmir on February 14 that killed more than 40 Indian soldiers. Pakistan has denied involvement in the attack but vowed to respond to any Indian military operation against it.Several reporters, including an Associated Press journalist, trudged up the Kangaran Nallah hill to the site of Tuesday's bombing near the town of Balakot, close to the border with Pakistan's sector of Kashmir. They saw several large craters, a few upended trees and villagers wondering why they had been targeted.
Pakistan's military spokesman, Maj. Gen Asif Ghafoor, said Indian planes crossed into the Muzafarabad sector of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. He said Pakistan scrambled its warplanes and the Indian jets released their payload "in haste" near Balakot.
India's Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale told reporters in New Delhi that Indian fighter jets targeted Jaish-e-Mohammad camps in a pre-emptive strike after intelligence indicated another attack was being planned.
Balakot Police Chief Saghir Hussain Shah said he had sent teams to the area where the Indian bombs reportedly hit, which he described as a mostly deserted wooded area. He said there were no casualties and no damage. There was no immediate explanation for the differing accounts, although India and Pakistan routinely contradict one another.Israel is considered a key weapons supplier to the Indian army, and arms deals between the two countries in recent years are estimated at a billion dollars each year. Over the past two years, the Israeli and Indian armies conducted joint drills, and senior Indian military officials visited Israel.
The Israel Aerospace Industries agreed in 2017 to supply air-defense systems to the Indian army, in what was described as one the of largest arms deals in they history of Israel's security industries.
The February 14 attack was the worst on Indian forces since the start of the 1989 insurgency in Kashmir and came as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in a re-election campaign.Kashmir, which is split between the two countries but claimed by each in its entirety, has been the cause of two wars between the neighbors. They fought a third war in 1979 over East Pakistan, which gained independence with the help of India and became Bangladesh.Insurgents in Indian-controlled Kashmir have been demanding either outright independence or union with Pakistan. India routinely accuses Pakistan of arming and training militants who cross the mountainous Himalayan region.
The Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing. The bomber, who made a video beforehand, was a resident of Indian-controlled sector of Kashmir.
After the airstrike, Lt. Col. Devender Anand, an Indian army spokesman, said Pakistani soldiers attacked Indian positions along the boundary in Kashmir, the so-called Line of Control. He called the attack an "unprovoked" violation of the 2003 cease-fire. He said there were no casualties and refused to discuss India's incursion into Pakistan.
Chairman #PPP Bilawal Bhutto strongly condemns the #Indian intrusion in #Pakistani territory
Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has strongly condemned the Indian intrusion in Pakistani territory and issued the following statement on Tuesday.
“India has chosen to respond to a homegrown, organic freedom fighters attack in Indian occupied Kashmir by conducting an airstrikes on Pakistan soil for the first time since 1971. This outrageous and unprecedented act of aggression should be condemned internationally. Pakistan is well within our right to retaliate.
“The whole nation stands with our brave soldiers who are ready to respond to any scenario. They risk their lives on a daily basis to keep us all safe. Atrocious that the extremist Hindutva government of the so-called largest democracy in the world would risk provoking war between two nuclear armed states, to feed war hysteria at home and help with Modi’s re-election campaign.
PPP Chairman stated that he was pleased that the opposition has called for a joint session of parliament, the appropriate forum for all decisions to be made. While the whole nation will stand united with whatever decision is taken it is important for Pakistan to be cautious.
“We don’t want to play into Modi’s hands. Proponents of peace in the region on both sides of the border must join in calling for cooler heads to prevail. The innocent people of India and Pakistan will be the collateral damage to any misadventure,” he added.
https://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/2019/02/26/chairman-ppp-bilawal-bhutto-zardari-strongly-condemns-the-indian-intrusion-in-pakistani-territory/
#Pakistani nation is united against #Indian aggression: Former President Zardari
Former President of Pakistan and President Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians Asif Ali Zardari strongly condemning Indian violation of control line said that India should not have any misconception of this condemnation because Pakistan has full potential to strike back at appropriate time.
Each and every Pakistani citizen is standing shoulder to shoulder with Pakistani armed forces, he said. If India is thinking of any misadventure then it should also keep in mind that we are a brave and united nation against any aggression. Prime Minister Modi should restrain from disturbing peace of the region. Voices are also being raised against jingoist Modi, former President Zardari said.
Asif Ali Zardari said that Pakistan is a peace loving country and wants peace in the region. Pakistan’s policy of peace should not be regarded as a weakness, he concluded.
https://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/2019/02/26/pakistani-nation-is-united-against-indian-aggression-former-president-zardari/
#airstrike - India says air strike hit major militant camp inside Pakistan
Indian jets conducted air strikes against a militant camp in Pakistani territory on Tuesday, India’s foreign secretary said, and a Indian government source said 300 militants had been killed, but Pakistan denied there had been any casualties.
The air strikes hit a training camp of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the group that claimed credit for a suicide car bomb attack killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police in Kashmir on Feb. 14, ratcheting up tensions between the two nuclear armed neighbors.
The action was ordered as India said it had intelligence that Jaish was planning more attacks.
“In the face of imminent danger, a preemptive strike became absolutely necessary,” Vijay Gokhale, India’s top diplomat, told reporters.
“The existence of such training facilities, capable of training hundreds of jihadis could not have functioned without the knowledge of the Pakistani authorities,” Gokhale said.
Pakistan denies harboring JeM, a primarily anti-India group that forged ties with al Qaeda and has been on a UN terror list since 2001. In December 2001, Jaish fighters, along with members of another Pakistan-based militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, launched an attack on India’s parliament, which almost resulted in the two countries going to war for a fourth time.Gokhale said “a very large number” of militants were killed in a strike on a training base in Balakot, a town in a remote valley in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, but did not provide a precise figure for the casualties.The commander of the camp was Maulana Yusuf Azhar, a brother-in-law of JeM leader Masood Azhar, Gokhale said.
A senior Indian government source said that 300 militants had been killed in the strikes. But no details were provided.
Pakistan downplayed the severity of air strike, saying its own warplanes had chased off the Indian aircraft, which had released their “payload” in a forested area, causing no casualties and no serious material damage.
“Indian aircrafts intruded from Muzaffarabad sector,” Pakistani military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said on Twitter early on Tuesday, referring to an area in the Pakistan-held part of Kashmir.
Ghafoor said “facing timely and effective response from Pakistan Air Force”, the Indian aircraft “released payload in haste, while escaping, which fell near Balakot. No casualties or damage”.Saying that more information would be released, Ghafoor tweeted four pictures of the alleged site where Indian aircraft dropped a payload near Balakot, purportedly showing a bomb crater in a forest area but no serious damage.Pakistani villagers in the area where the Indian jets struck said they heard four loud bangs in the early hours of Tuesday but reported only one person was wounded.
“We saw fallen trees and one damaged house, and four craters where the bombs had fallen,” said Mohammad Ajmal, a 25-year-old who visited the site.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Tuesday that “better sense” should prevail, warning India not to challenge Pakistan.
While Gokhale did not comment on the status of the camps, India’s minister of state for agriculture, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, said on Twitter on Tuesday they had been “completely destroyed”.
Indian television networks reported the air strikes took place at 3.30 am.
Mohammed Iqbal, a resident of Mendhar, on the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC), told Reuters that he heard jets flying through the night.
Balakot is about 50 km (30 miles) from LoC, the ceasefire line that is the de facto border in Kashmir, a Himalayan region that has been the cause of two of the three wars India and Pakistan have fought since the end of British colonial rule in 1947.
Analysts have alleged Pakistani militants have their training camps in the area, although Pakistan has always denied the presence of any such camps.
RARE STRIKES
Indian markets fell on Tuesday amid concerns over increased tensions with Pakistan. The rupee weakened to 71.16 per dollar compared with Monday’s close of 70.9850.The 10-year benchmark bond yield rose to 7.61 percent compared with 7.58 percent on Monday, while the broader NSE stock index declined 1.17 percent.Shelling across the LoC has occurred frequently over the past few years but airspace violations by jets are extremely rare.
New Delhi said in 2016, following another large attack on Indian security forces in Kashmir, that its troops crossed the LoC to carry out a “surgical strike” on suspected militant camps in Pakistan Kashmir. Islamabad denied anything serious occurred.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, facing a tight election in the next couple of months, has vowed a strong response to the Feb. 14 attack, the deadliest single assault on Indian forces in 30 years of insurgency in Jammu & Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan denied his country was involved and offered to help investigate the attack if any credible evidence was provided.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-kashmir-pakistan/india-says-air-strike-hit-major-militant-camp-inside-pakistan-idUSKCN1QF07B
#Surgicalstrike2 - 12 Mirage 2000 jets strike Pakistan: All you need to know about Dassault-made aircraft that played key role in Kargil war
Early on Tuesday, ANI reported Indian Air Force sources as having revealed that as many as 12 Mirage 2000 jets took part in an operation to drop 1,000-kilogram bombs on what were reportedly terrorist launchpads across the Line of Control.
https://www.firstpost.com/india/12-mirage-2000-jets-strike-pakistan-all-you-need-to-know-about-dassault-made-aircraft-that-played-key-role-in-kargil-war-6153001.html
The operation has allegedly led to the "complete destruction" of the terrorist camp in Balakot sector of Pakistan. Indian pilots, it is being reported, have returned to safety, while 200 to 300 people have reportedly died on the Pakistan side.
However, Major General Asif Ghafoor, spokesperson of the Pakistan army, claimed that the attack had failed to cause any damage to Pakistan. He wrote on Twitter that the Indian side, "facing timely and effective response from Pakistan Air Force released payload in haste while escaping."
If reports are confirmed, then the Mirage 2000s have once again proven to be the hero of yet another operation by the Indian Air Force. The jets first gained prominence after what was reported to be their success in the 1999 Kargil war.What is Dassault Mirage 2000 The Dassault Mirage 2000 is a French multirole, single-engine fourth-generation jet fighter manufactured by Dassault Aviation, the same company at the centre of the contentious Rafale jets deal. It comes with several variants which have been sold to as many as eight countries, including Peru, Egypt, India, UAE, Qatar, Brazil, Taiwan and Greece. Mirage 2000 has nine points for carrying weapon system payloads, five on the fuselage and two on each wing, reports AirForce Technology. The single-seat version is also armed with two internally mounted, high-firing-rate 30mm guns. Air-to-air weapons supported by the Mirage 2000 include the MICA multitarget air-to-air intercept and combat missiles, and the Magic 2 combat missiles, both from MBDA (formed out of a merger between Matra BAe Dynamics, EADS Aerospatiale and Alenia Marconi Systems). MICA supports a maximum operating range of 60 kilometres. The aircraft can carry four MICA missiles, two Magic missiles and three drop tanks simultaneously. The Mirage 2000-5 can fire the MBDA Super 530D missile or the MBDA Sky Flash air-to-air missile as an alternative to the MICA missile.
The Mirages sold to India were reported to have had limited air interdiction, which cuts down on the use of preventive aircraft attacks against enemy targets, and had to be modified significantly.
India's Mirage 2000Hs had to be fitted with a Thomson-CSF Laser Designator Pod, known as "ATLIS", which was capable of delivering 1000 kg laser-guided bombs, which were purpose-built for the destruction of reinforced targets, says Bharat Rakshak. Parts to fit in an additional Paveway II laser-guided bomb kit had to be remanufactured by the IAF as India had been put on the embargo list at the time, following nuclear tests in Pokhran.
The Mirage in the 1999 Kargil War
During the Kargil War, India also had MiG-21s, MiG-23s and MiG-27s in its arsenal, but these jets – lacking modern weapons – had not been making a significant impact on hard-to-locate enemy positions. While pilots helming the MiG-23 and MiG-27 were used to manual dive-bombing runs, and this tactic was not suited in the rarefied atmosphere of the Himalayas.
It was at this point, says Russia Beyond, that the IAF introduced the Mirage 2000H. On 24 June, 1999, two of the aircraft struck and destroyed the command and control bunkers of Pakistan's Northern Light Infantry. Pakistan's military prowess in the war had been significantly dented since the attack, resulting in a victory for India.
During Operation Safed Sagar from June to July 1999, two Mirage squadrons flew a total of 514 sorties. The number one squadron flew air defence and strike escort missions, while the number seven squadron conducted 240 strike missions.
The impressive service of the Mirage 2000 in 1999 prompted the government to approve the purchase of ten Mirage 2000Hs, featuring improved avionics, particularly an upgraded RDM 7 radar.
The 'new' Mirage
In 2004, when India made its third order for the type, the government announced its intention to upgrade its existing Mirage 2000s. The new Mirage 2000, redesignated the Mirage 2000 I, is almost incomparable with the original jet, reported NDTV. At the heart of the upgrade is a new Thales RDY 2 radar, which allows for very long-range engagement of targets in the air, automatic tracking of targets, mapping of targets on the ground using Doppler beam-sharpening techniques, and the ability to track and engage targets which are moving on the ground. The pilot of the new Mirage 2000 is now able to see superimposed radar data on his helmet display, without having to look at any of the references inside the cockpit.
On 1 February, a Mirage 2000 trainer aircraft crashed at the HAL Airport in Yemlur of Bengaluru, ahead of the Aero India show. Even though both the pilots ejected, one died after landing on the aircraft’s wreckage.
https://www.firstpost.com/india/12-mirage-2000-jets-strike-pakistan-all-you-need-to-know-about-dassault-made-aircraft-that-played-key-role-in-kargil-war-6153001.html
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