News Analysis India

Tag: Indian Army

  • Commandos of Special Operations Division wargaming towards integration

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: The elite Armed Forces Special Operations Division (AFSOD) of the Indian military has started wargaming specialized scenarios with an aim to develop drills and operating procedures so that the special forces of each service can operate jointly.

    A senior government official said, “Integration exercises of the commandos are going on to develop common operational procedures.” Keeping the sensitivity and significance of the special forces it will take some time to reach the specialised level, he added.

    It was in May 2019 that the government approved the raising of the AFSOD comprising the Special Forces of the Army, Navy and the Air Force and Major General AK Dhingra of the Special Forces Regiment was posted as its first head.

    As reported by The New Indian Express, “Initially, there will be about 3,000 special forces commandos from the Parachute Regiment of the Army, MARCOS of the Navy and the Garud Commandos of the Air Force. It is said to be based in Agra as it already is the base of India’s only Parachute Brigade.”

    The sources added initial exercises of the commandos having strength of about 150-200 had begun in September 2019. But it was only to bring together the three forces, trained under a different regime and ethos, to test their drills and capabilities and to identify the future direction of training and amalgamation to function as a seamless offensive formation.

    The job of these commandos will be to swiftly destroy high value targets, both within and outside the country, with precision and secrecy.

    Another source added, “There are various commonalities but the difference exists because of the specialised task and requirements of each service thus it will take some time before they get integrated.”

    The initial proposal was of raising a strategic level formation with the Special Forces Command to be headed by a Lt General. As of now the Division is under the control of the Integrated Defence Staff headed by the Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat.

    Although the Naresh Chandra Task Force in 2012 had recommended the creation of a cyber-command, an aerospace command and Special Operations Command it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had announced its formation in 2018.

  • Operational Theatre Commands 2-3 years away

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  The process of raising the staff and structure has been set rolling as the individual services have been asked to nominate one officer as the Theatre Commander, who will be entrusted the duty of creating positions according to the task and hierarchy. 

    It will take two-three years for the complete structure to take shape. “The Theatre Commander will have his staff officers, including Deputy Theatre Commander, who will be the Commander of the Commands which will get subsumed into the said theatre command,” he added.

    A government source informed, “Services have been told to nominate one Theatre Commander each from the Army, Navy and Air Force. In the case of the Army, the Western Army Commander has been nominated to hold the dual charge of Army Commander and Theatre Commander.” The Air Force and Navy are in the process of finalising, said the source.

    Initially, there will be four Theatre Commands — Western Theatre Command and Eastern Theatre Command (handling operations against China) on land and one each for air and maritime. “The Northern Command and AOC Jammu and Kashmir under the Western Air Command have been excluded and a decision on it will be taken subsequently,” said the source. The Northern Command handles borders with both Pakistan and China.

  • Denied permanent commission, seven women army officers move Supreme Court

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: The issue of permanent commissioning of women in Indian Army has not been fully resolved. An appeal has been filed in Supreme Court against an order asking some of them to leave service by September 12. A total of 28 women officers have been declared unfit to serve in the Indian Army with 11 of them set to leave, as per the order.

    Seven of them have knocked the apex court terming the order discriminatory. Speaking to this newspaper, one of the officers said the Army is not accepting the same criteria based on which women officers were given extensions twice earlier.

    “Most of us have served more than 20 years and have been given extensions twice on the very criteria which now is the basis for grant of permanent commission to women officers. But the Army is now saying that we are not eligible.” Fifteen of the 28 are medically fit, added the officer.

    The landmark ruling to grant permanent commission to women officers was given by the Supreme Court in February, 2020, after which a special board was set up to identify the women officers to be commissioned. A total of 615 women officers were considered, of which 424 were granted permanent commission.

    An Army officer said, “Not every male officer joining through the Short Service Commission gets a PC. Only 60- 65 per cent get it.” There are around 43,000 officers in Indian Army, including 1,650 women, which is just 3.83 per cent. Women have been granted PC in Army Air Defence, Signals, Engineers, and other divisons.

  • Indian Army foils infiltration bid by heavily armed terrorists along LoC

    By PTI

    JAMMU: The Army has foiled a major infiltration bid by a group of heavily armed terrorists along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district, officials said on Friday.

    The infiltration attempt was detected by alert troops of the Indian Army, defence spokesperson Lt Col Devender Anand said.

    “A group of heavily armed Pakistani terrorists attempted to infiltrate along the LoC in Poonch sector last night (Thursday),” he said.

    “The infiltrators were challenged and heavy firing ensued,” the spokesman said.

    Owing to undulating terrain and heavy undergrowth, the terrorists managed to break contact and escape back towards Pakistan-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) under the cover of darkness, he said.

    A thorough search of the encounter site was carried out, and a huge quantity of supplies left behind by the terrorists was recovered, including clothing, packaged food items and medicines with Pakistani markings, Lt Col Anand said.

    The Indian Army maintains a determined resolve to thwart any infiltration attempts or nefarious designs by anti-national elements, he said.

  • India wants to create USD 5 billion worth of defence equipment by 2025: DRDO official 

    By PTI

    NOIDA: The Union government has an ambition to create a USD 5 billion worth of defence equipment by 2025, a senior DRDO official said here on Friday, emphasising on the need for developing an ecosystem for defence research in the country.

    To realise this ambition, the government has also launched several schemes to fund startups, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Director General (Technology Management) Hari Babu Srivastava said.

    He made the remarks at the launch of Amity University’s M Tech in Defence Technology course, its joint programme with the DRDO and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

    “The genesis of this programme is to generate wealth for the country. All wealthy countries have rich defence ecosystems and the Indian government has the ambition to create USD 5 billion of defence equipment by 2025,” Srivastava said, according to a statement.

    “To achieve this, we need to increase efficiency and the number of productive people from day one, and thus, the incubation period will reduce. India needs to develop its ecosystem for defence research and have launched several schemes to fund startups,” he said while addressing the students of the university.

    He said students, after completion of this programme, can make their own research and development (R&D) startup, adding that the “aim is to fight the next war with our weapons”.

    Amity Group’s founder chairman Ashok K Chauhan thanked the government agencies for partnering with the private university for the programme.

  • Army foils infiltration bid along LoC in J-K’s Poonch

    By PTI

    JAMMU: The Army has foiled an infiltration bid along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district, defence officials said on Friday.

    This is the second infiltration bid foiled by the Army in the last five days.

    “There was an infiltration attempt (by terrorists) along LoC in Poonch sector last night,” said the PRO defence.

    The infiltration bid has been foiled with effective fire by the troops on our side of the LoC, he said.

    Further details are awaited, the PRO added.

    He, however, denied any ceasefire violation along the LoC.

    Earlier in the week on Monday, two terrorists were killed as Army troops foiled a similar infiltration attempt along the LoC in Poonch district.

  • Video of cops thrashing Army jawan for not wearing mask in Jharkhand goes viral, three suspended

    By Express News Service

    RANCHI: An Army jawan was ruthlessly beaten up by police at Karma Bazar under Mayuhand Police Station in Chatra for not wearing a mask on Wednesday. After video footage of the cops brutally kicking, slapping, punching and hitting the jawan with batons went viral on social media, the Chatra SP immediately took cognisance of the matter and action was taken against the erring policemen. The Army jawan has been identified as Pawan Kumar Yadav.

    “I have suspended one hawildar and two constables while the other two assistant policemen have been line closed,” said the SP. The incident took place when a mask checking drive was being conducted under the Block Development Officer, he added.

    An Indian Army jawan was ruthlessly beaten up by police personnel in Jharkhand’s Chatra for not wearing a mask. Three police personnel, along with two other officials were suspended after video of the incident went viral on social media.@NewIndianXpress @TheMornStandard pic.twitter.com/JNuzAyiOBa— Mukesh Ranjan (@Mukesh_TNIE) September 2, 2021 “Prima facie, it has come to our notice that the jawan was triple riding on his bike and not wearing a mask. When he was intercepted by the police team, he allegedly misbehaved with them following which they beat him,” said the SP. It is not acceptable at any cost, hence action has been taken against them, he added.

    After the intervention of angry villagers, Yadav was later taken to the Mayurhand police station.

  • J&K: Army commander meets kin of youths who joined terror groups, asks them to bring wards back

    By PTI

    SHOPIAN: In a first, the top army commander in the Kashmir Valley on Tuesday met members of around 80 families whose children have joined various terrorist groups in Jammu and Kashmir and urged them to bring their wards back in whatever way possible.

    “I request you to pull out your children from the swamp called terrorism.

    I leave it up to you how you pull them out but please do it,” General-Officer-Commanding of the Srinagar-based Chinar Corps Lt Gen D P Pandey told the families at a function held at a stadium in this highly-volatile district of south Kashmir.

    This is for the first time that the senior most army officer in the valley has met in person the families whose children have picked up guns.

    Inspector General of Police (Kashmir Range) Vijay Kumar told the parents that “police and security forces have been providing opportunities (to local terrorists) to surrender during live encounters since last year.

    Families are requested to convince their children (newly recruited terrorists) to come back”.

    The army commander cautioned the families against the “white-collar” terrorists roaming among the general masses and said “while the children of these while-collar terrorists are enjoying and studying in the rest of the country, your children are targeted by these people. Beware of them.”

    “I have come to you and I want to share that there are two aspects when a youth picks up guns. The first could be that he wants to impress girls or for drugs or is not good at education or even if he is good at education, he has fascination for guns.

    “The second and dangerous aspect is, whom I call, white-collar terrorist. He is one among us whose children are studying or employed only to ensure that his children are not sucked into the gun culture. However, this white-collar terrorist ensures that children of other families pick up guns,” Lt Gen Pandey said at the function, ‘Jashn-e-Janoob’ (Festival of South).

    “I had requested for a one-to-one meeting with you all to appeal to you to pull out your children quietly from terror groups.

    And let me tell you that even during operation, if some boy is ready to surrender, I assure you that the army will do whatever possible, even at the cost of suffering injury, to get your child back,” he said drawing applause from the families.

    Among the families of terrorists present during the interaction were Abdul Hamid Najar, father of active militant Sumair Ahmad Najar; Mohammad Saleem Malik, brother of active militant Umar Ishfaq Malik; Mohammad Hussain Wani, father of active militant Naseer Ahmad Wani; Bashir Ahmad Wani, father of active militant Adil Ahmad Wani; Mohammad Khalil Wani, father of active militant Adil Hussain Wani; Mohammad Ramzan Sheikh, father of active militant Abid Ramzan Sheikh; and Farooq Ahmad Sheikh, father of active militant Sameer Ahmad Sheikh.

    The rest of the family members did not wish to be identified.

    The function was also attended by Victor Force GOC Maj Gen Rashim Bali, Brigadier N S Grewal and Commanding Officer of 44-Rashtriya Rifles Col A K Singh.

    Later, a track-and-field competition was organised for the youth of various districts of south Kashmir, in which the Pulwama contingent emerged as the winner.

    Lt Gen Pandey handed over prizes to the winners.

  • Indian Army organises Jashn-E-Janoob, sports festival for youth in Kashmir

    By ANI

    SHOPIAN: Indian Army has organised Jashn-E-Janoob, a sports festival to motivate the youths of Kashmir towards sports activities, in a bid to reduce militancy in the area.

    The 15-day long event – Jashn-E-Janoob – was concluded on Tuesday. A score of youngsters has participated in the festival and demonstrated various sports including kabaddi, running, and Sky Martial Arts.

    “These kinds of events are good for the people of Kashmir because they give them exposure and motivation to do something in life. Sports is the best way to all the hazardous things out of the mind. I appeal to all the parents to send their child to sports, along with the education,” Hanis Shabir, a martial artist told ANI.

    While another hailed the government and said that the athletes presented in the event are very much supported by the government and the district administration.

    During the festival, the 111 feet tallest flag also hoisted by, GoC Chinar Corps and IGP Kashmir in installed in the sports stadium Shopian.

    Speaking at the ceremony, the Lieutenant General DP Pandey, General Officer Commanding (GOC) of Srinagar-based Chinar Corps (15 Corps) congratulated people for not enjoying the festival and said that there could be the next Olympian from south Kashmir.

    “I congratulate to the people for enjoying this festival. I also congratulate the civil administrations and who collectively along with 1000 athletes, sportsmen concluded this South Kashmir Sports Festival,” the GoC Chinar Corps said.

    He also said that he believes that next Parvez Rasool, PV Sindhu, Chanu Saikhom Mirabai, and Neeraj Chopra will be from here and made the country pound. 

  • J-K: Infiltration bid along LoC foiled in Poonch, one terrorist killed

    By PTI

    JAMMU: A terrorist was killed as Army troops foiled an infiltration attempt along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district early on Monday, a defence spokesman said.

    Jammu-based Defence Public Relation Officer Lt Col Devender Anand said that an operation is still in progress in the area.

    “In the early hours of August 30, terrorists from across the Line of Control made an attempt to infiltrate in the Poonch Sector. Alert Army troops detected the infiltration bid by effective use of the integrated surveillance grid in Poonch sector in the early hours of Monday,” the spokesman said.

    On being challenged by Army troops, a fierce fire fight ensued and one terrorist was killed.

    His body along with an AK-47 rifle has been recovered.

    “This action by alert Army troops displays the resolve of the Indian Army to thwart any misadventure along the LoC,” Lt Col Anand said.