The recent rise in jihadi terror attacks in Kashmir would appear to suggest that Pakistan is raising the stakes in it unconventional war against India. A number soldiers, three jihadis and a civilian were killed when infiltrators from across the border stormed the Sunjuwan Army camp; two jihadis died in a separate encounter. Stone pelting mobs injure and endanger the lives of the troops frequently. The dead jihadis at Sunjuwan have been identifies as Kari Mushtaq, Mohammed Khalid Khan and Mohammed Adil, all belonging to the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed.
Given shelter
S.P. Vaid, Director General of Police, Jammu and Kashmir, said the attack could not have been possible without ‘local help. Some over-ground workers provided them with shelter and support. They were guided to the Army camp. Whether they had any local support after they reached it is yet to be ascertained,’ he said.
According to a senior Home Ministry official, the attackers infiltrated the Line of Control as far back as last August. They lay low recruiting and planning. Now, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has been entrusted with the intelligence appreciation of these events (Hindu February 14).
Congress Comment
Congress President Rahul Gandhi and his cohorts sought political mileage of these developments, accusing the government of lacking a Kashmir policy (Hindu February 14). Who has one, or had one that worked? The only detectable Congress policy was endless pieties, of an assembly line of buzzwords, accompanied by stacks and stacks of cash to Hurriyat leaders to keep them on board a leaky vessel.
Likewise, TV channels voice rancid mantras and shibboleths as screaming participants and anchors jostle for public space in a mad house of incoherence. The uncomfortable truth is invariably ducked as these ostriches prefer to bury their brain dead heads in the sand.
Truth is that Pakistan has ben engaging India in an undeclared war without its government and people, until recently, coming to terms with reality.
Dialogue, cricket, getting to know each other, and much else have been, and continue to be, bromide-induced fantasies that have, alas, begotten other fantasies much like a karmic cycle in slow motion.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
The late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto incarnated his country’s anti-Indian pathologies. Desirous of ‘bleeding India to death’ was (and still is) the slogan of choice. He gambled disastrously with the military to initiate the genocide in former East Pakistan, which ended in Pakistan’s defeat on the battlefield and its break-up. A few years later, Bhutto perished on the gallows, consumed by his delusions.
No lessons learned
Nothing has been learned from these fiascos. Inebriating utterances about ‘retaliating against Indian aggression’ keep hissing from Islamabad’s kettle. The game of chicken goes on regardless.
Kashmiri Muslim
gesture to Pandits
However, a report emanating from Srinagar tells of numerous Kashmiri Muslims sending greeting cards to their Pandit Hindu brethren for Shivratri. They well understand the benefits of living under the rule of law and constitutional government rather than abide by the life-threatening rules of engagement of the sectarian state next door, where minority Shias and Amediyyas live in constant peril of their lives from Sunni mobs and assassins. This brave and brotherly gesture demonstrates that all is not lost in the Valley. Far from it (Hindu February 14).
Partnering to promote skills
IBM India in partnership with the Indian government is to plan a design courses that will define job futures. IBM Chairman and CEO Ginny Romettey said that the company and the Ministry of Skills Development will be launching two diploma courses to make the next generation skilled enough to take up future jobs that will be dominated by augmented intelligence, cognitive intelligence, cloud computing and blockchain.
IIT diplomas
Ms Rometty explained that two-year diplomas would be at the IITs Bangaluru and Hyderabad to start with this year, after which they woud be expanded to other towns and cities. ‘We are certainly the world leaderin Artificial Intelligence but I believe Augmented Intelligence is the future,’ she said, adding that 100 per cent of the current jobs will change and hence there is an immediate need of re-skilling with public private partnership. Earlier, Ms Rometty met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discussed these issues with him. She emphasized the need for companies to focus on new-age technologies since every company in the world will be a technology company (Business Line February 14)
Unfolding future
A recent study by consulting firm McKinsey estimates that that up to 30 per cent of the workforce in developed markets is engaged in independent work entailing flexible work practices and the like. In India, while startups were the early adopters of this new wave, Wade Azmy, Managing Director of ICG Singapore, a digital platform and a network for independent consultants, believes the Indian market has many freelancers/non-employees are ready to engage in short-term projects. High end skilled freelance work is on the cusp of take-off. ‘India for us, is more of a talent base than a client base,’ says Vincent Casanova of a Zurich-based consulting firm with global connections (Mint February 12).
Big hitters GE, Tata in joint venture
US giant General Electric (GE) and Tata Advanced Systems have set up a Structural Centre of Excellence for non-engine components. The manufacturing facility located close to Hyderabad international airport, will deliver complex high-precision aero-engine components to CEM LEAP engines. The ground-breaking was lauched formally in the presence of K.T. Rao, Telangana Minister for IT, Industries and Commerce (Business Line, Economic Times February 13, 14).
Centre mulling ban on Muslim terror group
The Centre is considering a ban on the Popular Front of India (PFI), a militant Muslim group based in Kerala, according to Kiren Rijju, Minister of State at the Home Ministry in New Delhi. The Kerala police chief listed four cases where PFI members indulged in atrocities, including the gruesome amputation of the hand of an academic Professor T.J. Joseph, an authority on Malayalam literature for setting a question in an examination, his assailants considered disrespectful of the Prophet Mohammed. The National Security Agency (NIA) submitted a separate report to the Home Ministry listing criminal acts carried out by PFI members (Hindu February 15, 16).
IM bomber held on Nepal border
The Delhi Police Special Cell arrested Ariz Khan, 32 year-old bomb maker and Indian Mujahideen (IM) mastermind behind the serial bombings in Delhi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and sites in Uttar Pradesh which claimed 165 innocent lives and caused injuries to 535 others at Nepal border. ‘He is an expert bomb maker and a core member of the Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, module of the IM,’ said P.S. Kushwaha, Deputy Commissioner, Police, Special Cell.
Leads to jihadis
Kushwaha said information relating to absconding IM and Students Islamic Movement (SIM) members revealed that they had set up bases in Nepal under false identities. Acting on information a trap was laid at Banbasa on the Nepal border. On September 12, 2008, a group of IM were run to ground in at Batla House, Delhi, from where its members operated. In an exchange of fire two operatives were killed and the others captured, save for Ariz Khan and associate Shehzad who escaped. Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, who led the charge that day was killed during the encounter (Hindu, Economic Times February 15).
India’s support for Iraq reconstruction
India issued an impassioned call for a political settlement among all stake holders in Iraq at the Kuwait-sponsored International Conference for Reconstruction of Iraq in Kuwait City, where major world powers met under the Chairmanship of the U N Secretary General Antonio Guterres to draw up a master plan for the country’s recovery from the devastation of invasion, foreign occupation and civil strife.
Indian participation
Minister of State for External Affairs M .J. Akbar, who led the Indian delegation declared his country’s commitment to participate in effort to put Iraq back on its feet. He said: ‘We will play our part with project specific proposals. We support the important role assigned to private sector investment in the rebuilding of the terrorist- affected areas in Iraq. We are willing to play a substantive role in major projects in petrochemicals, health, education infrastructure and other sectors (such as) specific requests for rehabilitation projects and essential supplies like medicine, equipment, as required for internally displaced persons....’
Calling for a comprehensive global treaty against terrorism, for long advocated by India, Mr Akbar declared: ‘This is also the moment to remind the international community that an early adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism, a draft of which was proposed by India as early as 1996.’
