Skirmishs at LOC, LAC & International Border

[Screambowl]

How far is Barahoti (middle sector ) from your native place ?

57 km
............................................................................................................

 

[Screambowl]

J.P Dutt is back,with a movie based on 1967 border skirmish

View attachment 23710

isko punjab regiment ya phir 18 ya 8 gr ke ilawa koi aur nahi miltey movie banane kay liye..

 

[Akshay_Fenix]

Im just curious.

The word anti national and traitor is now used widely since BJP came into power.
Dont know why.

Anybody who says something against Modi suddenly become anti national and traitor.
Like he is some kind of divine GOD. Similar to the emperor of Japan during WW2.

Where do people get these words? Does BJP teach all their followers to call this as a defense mechanism so that no one will oppose Modi?

Or should I say Sri Modiji or else i will be banned from this forum. I dont know, strange things are happening even in army who called our PM Modi and got punished. And no one cares, even in this defense forum.

Like I said, he might be divine or something.

And the funny thing is , The guys who looted our banks and went abroad are still good guys. They are not anti national or traitors ...lol...

PM Modi directs BSF to withdraw punishment given to 'jawan'

http://expressnewsline.com/2018/03/07/pm-modi-directs-bsf-to-withdraw-punishment-given-to-jawan.html

Disrespecting the PM while wearing the uniform is a serious NO NO.

Most of the other crap you have mentioned is just pure bulshit. Duhh!!! the people who committed 2G scam or Coal scam are traitors and criminals, similarly the people who loot public money from banks are traitors and criminals as well. Thats given.

 

[IndiaRising]

isko punjab regiment ya phir 18 ya 8 gr ke ilawa koi aur nahi miltey movie banane kay liye..

LoC Kargil mein konsa Punjab Regiment tha?

 

[Bornubus]

57 km
............................................................................................................

Good. Many of the villages around that area are now empty (ghost villages ) a serious security implicatio.


You are yourself sitting in Germany

 

[indus]

epic epic joke ....I know this is not a political thread but Rahul the clown is taking about J&K and the situation on the LOC and it just goes to prove he is wholeheartedly with the terrorists and Porkisthan.....This video explains everything you need to know...we are basically winning the undeclared war on LOC and this anti national clown has to Singapore and talk ill about India and twist facts with his stupid and senseless logic.

Two questions I came to my mind.
Who were those hundreds of people working quietly behind the scenes....??? And to what end they were working.
Who was that MLA from Punjab who used to be a terrorist 20 yrs ago.???
If someone as bright as Rahul Baba could enlighten.

 

[Shadow]

And it begins again.............

 

[Mikesingh]

Two questions I came to my mind.
Who were those hundreds of people working quietly behind the scenes....??? And to what end they were working.
Who was that MLA from Punjab who used to be a terrorist 20 yrs ago.???
If someone as bright as Rahul Baba could enlighten.

Check this out! Major embarrassment to RaGa in Singapore!


:biggrin2:

More in the vid below....RaGa is all at sea! And he's dreaming of becoming the next PM of India!! Jeeez!!

 

[Screambowl]

Good. Many of the villages around that area are now empty (ghost villages ) a serious security implicatio.


You are yourself sitting in Germany

They moved back long time ago, Mana is also almost empty, as there is no employment and medical facility except to be provided by army. Govt khud nahi chahti wahan koi settlements ho, wood mafia ka raaj hai protected areas mein , bc paisa kha gaye sab kay sab forest officers. it's only Fauj running the state to be honest.

 

[Butter Chicken]

Situation on LoC, working boundary with India rapidly deteriorating: Pakistan foreign minister

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif today said that the situation on the Line of Control and Working Boundary with India has been rapidly deteriorating since 2017.

Responding to a query in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, he alleged India has committed more than 400 ceasefire violations along the LoC and the Working Boundary since January in which 18 civilians have been killed.

"Heavy weapons, including mortars are frequently being used by the Indian forces on the civilian population on the Pakistani side of the LoC and the Working Boundary," he said.

Asif said the LoC violations were an attempt to divert the attention from the "deteriorating" humanitarian situation in the Valley.

He said that the role of the UN Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) was crucial to ensure peace at the LoC.

The minister alleged that Pakistan always extended full cooperation to the UNMOGIP but India was not cooperating with the world body representatives.


India maintains that the UNMOGIP has outlived its utility and is irrelevant after the Simla Agreement and the consequent establishment of the Line of Control(LoC).

 

[Kalki_2018]

https://www.dawn.com/news/1393847/two-policemen-gunned-down-in-quetta

Dumbfucks are worried about LOC when Balochistan is continuing to burn.

 

[Kalki_2018]

I hope IAF gets to test the Garuthma and SAAW at LoC this year. After 155 mm this would be ideal for hitting camps across LoC.

 

[Bornubus]

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

 

[pankaj nema]

Despite casualties, evacuations, Army to keep Pakistan under sustained pressure

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...pressure-on-pakistan/articleshow/63239697.cms

 

[pankaj nema]

Between war and peace

Even a child knows that no fight can ever be won with just a shield. You also need the sword to hit back at your foe.

Peace talks with Pakistan cannot be India’s only option. How can India put an end to Pakistan’s asymmetric adventurism that has now continued non-stop for over 30 years?

http://indianexpress.com/article/op...r-deterrence-between-war-and-peace-2-5092442/

 

[12arya]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...63893265565_story.html?utm_term=.3b7e9f41a4b5

China’s foreign minister suggests ‘Chinese dragon’ and ‘Indian elephant’ should dance, not fight

A pair of statements from the Chinese and Indian foreign ministries this week appeared to show an opening in relations between Asia’s most powerful rivals, long competitors on trade and territory.

“The Chinese ‘dragon’ and the Indian ‘elephant’ must not fight each other, but dance with each other,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in Beijing on Thursday. If the two countries joined hands, he said, “one plus one will equal not only two, but also eleven,” referring to how powerful they would be together.

On Friday, India foreign ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed that stronger ties “are a factor of stability amid today’s global uncertainties” at a meeting at Xiamen in September 2017.

“We are willing to work with the Chinese side to develop our relations based on commonalities, while dealing with differences on the basis of mutual respect and sensitivity to each other’s interests, concerns and aspirations,” Kumar said at a news conference in New Delhi.

Relations between the two countries have been fraught in recent months, as tensions escalated over border issues and Tibet, a semiautonomous region of China. But the statements could suggest willingness to cooperate.

“I don’t think it's a fundamental shift in the relationship,” said Shashank Joshi, senior research fellow of the Royal United Services Institute.

“We are still looking at broad strategic competition between China and India, which stretches over the Himalayas and into the Indian Ocean. The statement doesn’t mean India is any less concerned on the Belt and Road initiative or the China-Pakistan economic corridor, but India does not want those disagreements to undermine relations,” he said, referring to China’s flagship program to increase connectivity in central, west and south Asia. New Delhi has refused to back the initiative, raising concerns it could directly link its two bordering strategic foes — China and Pakistan.

Earlier this week, Indian Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharam said in parliament that both countries had redeployed troops at Doklam, the contested site of an intense standoff between the two countries last year.

“The strength of both sides have been reduced,” she said, adding that the Chinese army had started the construction of sentry posts, helipads and trenches in the area.

Today's WorldView newsletter

What's most important from where the world meets Washington

The statements came after unconfirmed reports in Indian media this week that senior government officials were asked not to attend events to mark the Dalai Lama’s 60th year in exile from China. Events for the Buddhist leader — whom China considers a dangerous separatist — were moved from New Delhi to the Himalayan city of Dharamsala, headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

“India and China recognize that they can’t afford to let these disagreements erupt into open conflict,” Joshi said. “Diffusing Tibet issue for now is one for India to signal that’s what it wants to do.”

Simon Denyer contributed to this report from Beijing.

 

[12arya]

https://sputniknews.com/asia/201803071062310153-india-china-indian-ocean/

Revealed! What Made Chinese Warships Headed to Troubled Maldives Make a U-Turn

India's tri-service war games in the Indian Ocean coincided with a Constitutional crisis in the strategically located island nation Maldives. It was apparently this exercise that forced China to abort a naval mission reportedly aimed at containing New Delhi's influence over the troubled country.

New Delhi (Sputnik) — In a first of its kind, India recently conducted a massive exercise in the Indian Ocean involving its army, navy, air force and coast guards. The extensive exercise saw the participation of all operational ships, submarines and aircraft of the Indian Navy, along with men and equipment of the Indian Army, all types of aircraft of the Indian Air Force and ships and aircraft of the Indian Coast Guard. The Indian defense ministry claimed that the war games were aimed at threat perceptions of a two-front war, i.e. simultaneous combat with China and Pakistan.

"The war games conducted on both the seaboards of India extended from the Northern Arabian Sea off the coast of Gujarat to the Southern Indian Ocean off the Sunda Straits near Indonesia," the defense ministry said about the exercise which concluded on 28 February.

Around the same time, Chinese news portal Sina.com.cn had reported that a fleet of destroyers, at least one frigate, a 30,000-tonne amphibious transport dock and three support tankers entered the Indian Ocean. Though the report did not mention any specific reason for the deployment, it was widely construed as an attempt by China to exert its influence over Maldives — the strategically located chain of islands in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).

It was later reported that the Chinese warships turned around and returned to the South China Sea through the Lombok Strait. The four straits of Malacca, Sunda, Lombok and Ombai Wetar are used by China's People's Liberation Army (Navy) to cross between their bases in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean.

© AFP 2018/ STR
China Unlikely to Match India Strength in Indian Ocean in Near Future - Analysts
The Indian defense ministry hinted that the Chinese warships that were believed to be destined to linger off the Maldives, made a U-turn after they encountered the mission-ready ships of the Indian Navy that were then engaged in the war games.
"Mission-ready ships are now forward deployed in critical areas of the IOR with the inherent capability to respond to emerging threats and benign situations. The Navy has already reaped rich dividends from this concept," defense ministry exulted.

Indian Navy concludes two month Long War Game https://t.co/WDQOPXFqpX @DefenceMinIndia @nsitharaman @SpokespersonMoD @adgpi @IAF_MCC @HQ_IDS_India @PMOIndia @IndiaCoastGuard pic.twitter.com/SD9kRRmXOC

— SpokespersonNavy (@IndianNavy) March 5, 2018
The Indian Navy adopted the "mission-based deployment" concept last year in July to maintain its dominance in the IOR. The exercise was mainly a review of his concept. The Indian Navy further revealed that it has "cut the flab" in the various exercises undertaken at sea.

"Greater focus has been accorded to conflict readiness across the spectrum, as well as realistic scenarios likely to be faced at sea," the defense ministry revealed.

It said that the focus has been on realistic scenarios likely to manifest in the future, including terrorist attacks from the sea on critical infrastructure and populated areas, defense of offshore oil resources of the country and protection of India's significant seaborne trade.

 

[12arya]

https://warontherocks.com/2018/03/how-australia-can-foster-a-free-and-open-indo-pacific/

How Australia Can Foster a ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific’

Editor’s Note: A version of this article was originally published by The Interpreter, which is published by the Lowy Institute, an independent, nonpartisan think tank based in Sydney. War on the Rocks is proud to be publishing select articles from The Interpreter.

The recently revived Quad – a loose coalition between Australia, the United States, Japan, and India – is evolving towards a more comprehensive partnership less explicitly focused on defense issues. The latest idea, the Free and Open Indo-Pacific, involves providing the region with alternatives to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Australia can play an important role in this.

Concerns About the Belt and Road Initiative

The Chinese project is leading to some fundamental changes in Australia’s strategic environment. While this may be disconcerting, we need to be clear on the things Australia should be worried about.

China’s plan involves building a series of new pathways westwards across Eurasia and the Indian Ocean, and has evolved to also include various infrastructure projects in the South Pacific.

Importantly, the Belt and Road Initiative is not only a series of stand-alone infrastructure projects open to all comers, but is also intended as an integrated and exclusive system. China is proposing that the project’s production and transportation system will coordinate its own customs, quality supervision, e-commerce, and other agencies. It might even have its own tribunals for the resolution of disputes.

The initiative may be an attractive proposition for many countries with limited access to international funding. China’s offer to build infrastructure fast, and apparently with few conditions, could be difficult to resist. But while much of this infrastructure can be beneficial to the region, this isn’t always the case. Some enterprises are vanity projects, secured through pay-offs to corrupt leaders, and others simply don’t make economic sense. Predatory lending associated with some projects can easily create debt traps.

There are also strategic concerns. Some ports and airports could be used for military purposes. There are also worries about political influence. The recent “self coup” in the Maldives where President Abdulla Yameen closed down the country’s parliament and the judiciary may in part be an indirect consequence of the initiative. A string of Belt and Road projects in that tiny island state have delivered inordinate influence to Beijing, and possibly provided Yameen with cover to take actions he may otherwise have balked at.

The Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy

The newly re-established Quad is not only an exercise in balancing China. It can also be used to create new options for countries in the region, including providing alternatives to China’s Belt and Road Initiative right across the Indo-Pacific.

Japan has been building this strategy for more than a decade. Its vision for these projects has gone by several names and acronyms, including Bay of Bengal Industrial Growth Belt (BIGB), the Asia–Asia-Africa Growth Corridor, and now the Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy. In broad terms, Japan’s vision involves developing new economic and transportation corridors from the Pacific across the Indian Ocean to Africa. As the name implies, its stated focus is on building an open and not exclusive system of infrastructure.

This is far more than rhetoric. One of the region’s untold stories of recent years is of Japan’s international aid agency, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, funding the development of infrastructure across the Indo-Pacific, including major port projects in Mozambique (Nacala), Kenya (Mombasa), Madagascar (Taomasina), Oman (Duqm), India (Mumbai), and Myanmar (Yangon).

India has also been a key partner in many projects. The country itself is obviously the key pivot for any activity in the Indian Ocean, and its absence from China’s Belt and Road Initiative is a major gap in that strategy. But India has also been an important partner in projects elsewhere in the region. India played an important role in Bangladesh’s decision to award the Matarbari Port project to Japan. India and Japan are also partnering on other projects across the region, including the potential Trincomalee Port project in Sri Lanka, and possibly Chabahar Port in Iran.

The Trump administration has now apparently adopted the Free and Open Indo-Pacific as a useful strategy in place of Obama’s Asian rebalance strategy. It is not yet clear what the Trump administration means by the Free and Open Indo-Pacific, or how consistent its vision is with Japan’s, but at least the United States has endorsed it in principle.

What Does It Mean for Australia?

Australia is now considering what role it might play in the Free and Open Indo-Pacific.

First, the move to diversify the Quad from its focus on defense should be welcomed. Closer defense relationships are essential, but overemphasizing the defense aspect can create unrealistic expectations in the region and unnecessary anxieties for China.

The Free and Open Indo-Pacific should involve better political coordination among Quad partners across the region. In the Indian Ocean, this could include a coordinated strategy in working with countries such as Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. This should aim, among other things, at keeping domestic disputes at a local level rather than allowing them to spiral into wider strategic confrontations. Political problems in countries such as the Maldives should be contained as much as possible, and Australia can play a valuable political role in this.

Australia needs to think much harder about what it can do to promote regional connectivity. It does not have the funding available to the Japan International Cooperation Agency, but Australia can deploy aid funding in modest amounts, especially in places where it can make a difference.

Australia can also help facilitate development funding from agencies such as the Asian Development Bank and World Bank. It can also work better with the Quad partners in leveraging its niche expertise and technology in areas that may be important for certain projects.

Without doubt, Australia can make the biggest impact in the South Pacific, which is where our Quad partners expect us to take the lead. Even if not badged as such, Australia’s funding of new undersea communications cables between Australia, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands fits squarely within the Free and Open Indo-Pacific, driven by concerns about security, development, and corruption.

There has been much talk recently of China pushing unproductive “white elephant” projects in the South Pacific. Australia has strong imperatives here, as it may be the one left to pick up the pieces if small island states find themselves in debt traps. This means that Australia, in coordination with the Quad partners, needs to be on the front foot in offering attractive infrastructure projects to its South Pacific partners. Australia’s involvement in these projects will be key to shaping its strategic environment.

Dr. David Brewster is with the National Security College at the Australian National University, where he specializes in South Asian and Indian Ocean strategic affairs.

 

[12arya]

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/th...werhouse-thanks-russia-israel-23959?page=show

India Could Become a Military Powerhouse Thanks to Russia and Israel

India has begun the new year by announcing a pair of major military buys from Israel and Russia.

India’s Defense Minister Raksha Mantri announced the deals in a press release on January 2. In the statement, the defense minister said that India was purchasing 240 precision-guided bombs from Rosoboronexport, a Russian state firm, for a reported $197 million. The bombs will be used by the Indian Air Force.

Citing IAF sources, the Economic Times reported that “the precision guided weapon is called KAB-1500, which is a laser guided bomb and for use on IAF’s Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jets. It is designed to destroy ground targets such as railway lines, ammunition depots, bridges, military facilities and ships. The bomb’s warhead weighs 1,100 kilograms. The bomb has folding fins that allow it to maneuver while being guided to the target.”

The KAB-1500, which Moscow says is comparable to America’s Paveway II and Paveway III series, has been used by the Russian Air Force during its intervention in Syria. Some foreign analysts have estimated that certain versions of the KAB-1500 have a Circular Error Probable (CEP) of four to seven meters, meaning that 50 percent of the bombs would fall within that distance from their target. It is unclear which exact variant Moscow is selling to Delhi, although some sources say it is the one with that CEP.

The Sukhoi Su-30s that will use the bomb are the main workhorse of the Indian Air Force. Delhi builds many of the Russia-designed jets locally, and has procured roughly two hundred of them. Many of the initial planes it purchased have received continuous upgrades to take advantage of improvements Russia has made. Besides upgrading the planes themselves, India has focused on improving the firepower they carry. Along with the KAB-1500 bombs, India has also been modifying some of its Su-30s to carry the Brahmos supersonic cruise missile. As I noted last month, the air-launched Brahmos cruise missiles could be delivered by Russia as early as this month, although they will still need to undergo extensive testing.

In the same press release announcing the sale of the KAB-1500, the Indian Defense Minister also revealed that Delhi is purchasing 131 additional Barak-1 shipborne air-defense missiles from Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defence Systems Ltd. The Indian Navy already uses Barak-1 missiles to protect its ships, but its supply had been running dangerously low. Last May, India’s navy put out a global tender for international firms to bid on a contract for ten short-range surface-to-air missile systems, and six hundred missiles to replace its existing arsenal of Barak-1 missiles. That contract was set to be worth $1.5 billion. Before the contract bid period had even concluded, however, India announced plans to purchase more Barak-1 missiles citing the need to quickly replenish its depleted stocks. It is possible that these 131 new missiles will only serve as a stopgap.

India finalized the agreement with Israel for sea-based missile defenses at the same time as Pakistan’s unveiling of a new antiship missile. On January 3, Pakistan’s Navy said that it had successfully test fired a new indigenously developed “Harba” naval cruise missile. “The missile accurately hit its target signifying the impressive capabilities of Harbah Naval Weapon System,” the navy said in a statement, adding: “The successful live weapon firing has once again demonstrated the credible firepower of Pakistan Navy and the impeccable level of indigenisation in high tech weaponry achieved by Pakistan’s defence industry.”

The overlap between the Indo-Israeli deal and the Pakistani antiship test was almost certainly coincidental. Instead, the timing of the former is likely to tied to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming trip to India. Although exact dates have yet to be officially announced, Netanyahu is expected to visit India from January 15 to January 19. His trip—which will be the first by an Israeli prime minister in fifteen years—comes after Indian prime minister Narendra Modi visited Israel in July of last year. Modi’s trip was the first by an Indian prime minister in Israel’s history.

The reciprocal trips are indicative of the growing ties between Israel and India. During the Cold War, Delhi tried to keep the Jewish state at arm’s length to avoid inflaming Muslim countries, given its ongoing rivalry with Pakistan. The two countries established diplomatic ties for the first time in the 1990s, and cooperation has steadily grown since. The relationship has taken off in earnest since Modi became prime minister in 2014. Although the two countries cooperate across a broad ranges of areas, defense cooperation is especially important to the relationship. According to various media reports, India now purchases $1 billion of arms from Israel every year, making Israel India’s third-largest defense supplier. According to some sources, India is now the largest export market for Israeli arms.

Israel has made a concerted effort to boost Modi’s signature “Made in India” initiative by forming joint ventures with Indian defense firms, including manufacturing drones and missile-defense systems. Included in the latter category is the joint development of the Barak-8, a seaborne long-range air-defense missile. The first of the Barak-8 missiles was delivered to India in the summer of last year. The news has not all been good, however, as India announced this week that it was cancelling a $500 million contract with Israel for 1,600 Spike antitank guided missiles.

Zachary Keck (@ZacharyKeck) is a former managing editor of the National Interest.


Image: Wikimedia Commons / Alan Wilson

 

[12arya]

https://theprint.in/opinion/understanding-the-origins-of-pakistans-proxy-war-in-jk-part-1/40822/

One Army officer’s idea in the 1980s may have given India the edge in Kashmir

A representational image of soldiers in Kashmir | Waseem Andrabi/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
His deep understanding of the Kashmir Valley and its vulnerability to forces from across the LoC led him to widely propagate a strategy that resembled ‘The Winning Hearts and Minds’ strategy

It was the spring of 1984 and, barring the rumblings of dissent in Punjab, the rest of the northern parts of India were relatively quiet except for the odd skirmish along the Line of Control. I was not yet 23, a young flying officer in a MiG-21 squadron based at Adampur, the IAF base on the outskirts of the town of Jalandhar. I had just finished my ‘Day Ops’ syllabus and, because there were too many mouths to feed, the flight commander told me to ‘push off on some leave’ before commencing my night-flying syllabus that would get me my much-coveted ‘Fully Ops’ in my first operational squadron. I quickly called my parents and asked them whether they would like me to plan a family holiday in Kashmir, to which they readily agreed as dad had not yet availed of the leave travel concession (LTC) he was entitled to.

During our wonderful two-week sojourn in the Kashmir Valley, we walked around for a couple of days in Srinagar and did all the things tourists would do. We took a couple of languid shikara (Kashmiri boats) rides at different times of the day on the Dal Lake; spent a night on a houseboat; strolled through Shalimar Bagh and the Rose Garden, which was in full bloom; trekked up to Shankaracharya hill and walked around the Badami Bagh cantonment.

There was peace in the city of Srinagar and, barring a few stray comments from locals that started with “aapke India mein kya chal raha hai (What is happening in your India)?”, there were no real signs of the oncoming storm.

We visited Gulmarg, Sonamarg and the beautiful Dachigam sanctuary where we spotted the elusive Hangul deer. It was 10 days of sheer bliss!

The Chibber Doctrine

It is time, however, after that brief personal interlude, to focus on military matters and some happenings at the same time in Udhampur, which was, and still is, the headquarters of the Indian army’s Northern Command. The occupation of the Saltoro Ridge on the Siachen glacier by the Indian army had taken place quietly in April the same year without any fuss beyond stray ‘Siachen’ reports in the media, but Lt Gen M.L Chibber, the cerebral army commander, had more lined up on his plate.

Unlike the government in Delhi, he was presciently reflecting on what needed to be done in Kashmir to ensure complete integration of the state into the Indian Union with the active assistance of the army. His deep understanding of the socio-economic, religious and ethnic diversity of the Kashmir Valley and its vulnerability to fissiparous forces from across the Line of Control led him to widely propagate a strategy that resembled ‘The Winning Hearts and Minds’ strategy officially propounded by the Indian army nearly two decades later through its ‘Operation Sadbhavna.

If only the government in Delhi had listened to Chibber, who urged them to allocate resources and effort towards the concept of nation-building in J&K, who knows, the ‘proxy’ war may not have erupted in all its fury five years later as it did.

Chibber and one of his generals, Major General Tripat Singh, put together a book titled ‘Soldier’s Role in Jammu and Kashmir’ that was issued to all officers posted at the time in J&K. What impressed me most about the book was that it talked about shaping the narrative at a time when there was none, and today what we are reflecting on is, ‘How on earth are we losing the battle of narratives in J&K?’

Chibber realised that to thwart the designs of stray expressions of secessionist militant dissent and the gradual emergence of indigenous militant groups like the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and Hizbul Mujahideen, he needed to create a narrative of inclusiveness among the people of J&K, particularly those residing in the Valley. The main argument in the book revolved around the need for the Indian army to look at their presence in Kashmir as going beyond just the task of defending borders and the porous Line of Control. It stated in the ‘preamble’:

“It is necessary for all ranks, units and formations inducted into Northern Command to understand fully the land and people of the region, the history and basis of our conflicts with Pakistan and China in this region, our national objectives and policy… Thorough understanding of the local environment helps in gearing ourselves for better operational effectiveness. We should understand that while we are a secular and democratic nation, our adversary Pakistan is a theocratic dictatorship.”

The underlying message in the book was that unless the Indian army capitalised on the gentle ‘sufi’ culture in the Valley and played a pivotal role in shaping a secular, democratic and inclusive narrative in J&K, it was vulnerable to separatism arising out of the emerging radical Islamist narrative in Pakistan and historical fault lines.

To understand how events panned out over the next few decades and how J&K plunged into a cycle of insurgency, separatism and terrorism followed by a still ongoing and protracted proxy war unleashed by Pakistan, read Part-II.

Arjun Subramaniam is a retired Air Vice-Marshal from the IAF and currently a visiting fellow at Oxford University