News Analysis India

Tag: Indian Army

  • In five days Border Roads Organisation launches bridge connecting Shillong and Silchar

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) recently launched an important bridge on the highway connecting Shillong and Silchar. Prompt action by BRO has brought much needed succour to the local population and has been deeply appreciated by the Civil Administration.

    An existing RCC bridge with Load Class 70 (Fit to bear load of about 70 tons) at Barapani at Km 12.865 on National Highway (NH) 40 on Shillong-Silchar Highway was declared unfit for heavy vehicle traffic due to development of vertical cracks on the main beams and piers of the bridge.

    The Army said on Thursday, “BRO commenced launching of the bridge on 11 2021 and completed on 15 March 2021, within five days, which was envisaged to be launched in 15 days.”

    “After the on-site assessment by the BRO engineers, it was decided to construct a 230 feet continuous span Bailey Bridge over the Hamilton Bridge which was not under use and needed removal for launching a new bridge of heavier class. Restoration of piers and abutments was considered necessary to take a load of class 40 and above.” the Army said.

    But the process began around three months back when the representatives of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) approached BRO on 03 Dec 2020 for constructing a bridge at Barapani. The people of Shillong city were facing discomfort as the traffic had to be diverted through Shillong city over the Umiam cum spillway after the bridge at Barapani was declared unfit. This led to movement of heavy traffic causing congestion in the city resulting lot of discomfort to the people.

    As per the Army, “Construction of new bridge would have taken at least three years. On humanitarian ground Director General Border Roads gave his consent for construction of alternate bridge on fast-track basis.”

    Lt Gen Rajeev Chaudhry, Director General Border Roads along with representative of NHAI and PWD, Meghalaya visited the bridge site on 31 Jan 2021 to make an assessment of the task and give necessary directions to expedite the work. 

    Next to the RCC bridge was a Hamilton steel bridge in dilapidated state and was in disuse subsequent to construction of higher Load Class RCC bridge (which has now developed faults).

    “Hamilton bridge was found unusable and needed removal for launching a new bridge of heavier class. Restoration of piers and abutments was considered necessary to take a load of class 40 and above.” said Army.

    After considering all design aspects, it was decided to construct a 230 feet continuous span Bailey Bridge. BRO commenced launching of the bridge on 11 Mar 2021 and completed on 15 Mar 2021. This act of BRO has been appreciated by everyone.

  • Corporatisation of OFB will improve its products’ quality and expand its market: Panel

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The corporatisation of Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) will improve the quality of its products and expand its market, said parliamentary standing committee on defence in a report tabled in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

    As part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat package, the central government had announced on May 16 last year that it would improve autonomy, accountability and efficiency in ordnance supplies by corporatisation of the OFB.

    The OFB is a defence ministry entity and supplies critical arms and ammunition to the three armed forces and the paramilitary.

    The parliamentary committee said in its report that it concurred with the view of the defence ministry on the issue of OFB’s corporatisation and “believe that with necessitated structural improvements, OFB will be able to further improve quality of products and expand their market”.

    The ministry informed the committee that it has appointed a consultant to suggest “organisational structural changes and business continuity plan” for the new entity or entities to continue on a sustainable basis.

    “The study by the consultant is presently under progress. The committee recommend that the details be shared with them and at the same time would like to say that the ministry should weigh all the pros and cons in favour of the OFB before arriving at any finality on the findings of the consultants,” the committee stated.

    The ministry last year held multiple meetings with various employee unions of the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) to address their concerns regarding its corporatisation.

    In May 2019, the Indian Army had sought immediate intervention of the defence ministry to check rising cases of accidents involving battle tanks, artillery and air defence guns due to “poor quality” of ammunition being supplied to it by the OFB.

    The Army had then presented a report to the ministry listing incidents of accidents involving main guns of T-72 and T-90 and the Arjun main battle tanks, besides 105 mm field guns, 130 mm MA1 medium guns and 40 mm L-70 air defence guns, primarily due to faulty ammunition.

  • Damaged houses, homeless families: Shopian gunfight leaves trail of destructions

    Express News Service
    SRINAGAR:  The three-day encounter, one of the longest since the scrapping of Article 370 on August 5 2019, at Rawalpora village in Shopian in south Kashmir in which two Jaish militants were killed has left behind a trail of destruction. 

    At least eight residential houses have been damaged, six of them completely, rendering about 10 families homeless in the gunfight that ended on Monday.

    Since Tuesday morning, the youth of the village had been busy dousing the fire and clearing the debris of the houses damaged during the encounter between militants and security forces.

    According to locals, six houses have been completely destroyed in the gunfight, while two others were partially damaged.

    The police have confirmed that three houses were gutted in the firefight.

    “At least 10 families have been rendered homeless by the three-day encounter,” they said.

    The locals said one of the houses belongs to 18-year-old Ziyan Mir, who lost his father two years ago and was earning livelihood for the family.

    “Ziyan and his uncle were living in the house. Both are very poor. Nothing is left in the house. They have nowhere to go now,” a local said.

    Another villager Yasir Ahmad Lone, who had fled from the area after the outbreak of gunfight on Saturday evening, said his uncle’s house was among the properties damaged in the encounter.

    “My uncle is a farmer and is not in a position to rebuild the house. He has lost everything,” he said.

    Many villagers have started collecting donations to help the families who suffered losses in the gunfight.  

    Two JeM militants, including its commander Sajjad Afghani, were killed in the encounter on Monday.

    Police prevent four youth from joining militant ranks

    The police has prevented four youth from central Kashmir from joining the militant ranks.

    A police spokesman said two teenagers had gone missing from their homes in Budgam district on March 14. Police teams were formed to track them.

    “The teams came to know that both the they were in Tral area of Pulwama district. Accordingly, the teams went there and managed to trace and recover both the boys,” he said.

    Two more youth from Ganderbal district were arrested from Karan Nagar-Batamaloo area and later, handed over to their parents, the police said.

  • India’s import of arms decreases by 33 per cent amid Make-in-India push: Report

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Amid the government’s push to promote indigenous defence equipment, a report by Stockholm-based defence think-tank SIPRI claimed that India’s import of arms decreased by 33 per cent between 2011-15 and 2016-20, and Russia was the most affected supplier.

    It said the drop in Indian arms imports seemed to have been the result of the country’s complex procurement processes combined with an attempt to reduce its dependence on Russian arms.

    In the last few years, India has taken a series of measures to boost the domestic defence industry to reduce dependence on imported military platforms and hardware.

    The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), in its report on global arms transfers published on Monday, said India’s imports of US arms also fell by 46 per cent.

    “International transfers of major arms stayed at the same level between 2011-15 and 2016-20. Substantial increases in transfers by three of the top five arms exporters — the USA, France and Germany — were largely offset by declining Russian and Chinese arms exports.”

    The US remains the largest arms exporter, increasing its global share of arms exports from 32 to 37 per cent between 2011-15 and 2016-20. Russia is the second-largest arms exporter.

    Exports by China decrease by 7.8%

    The report said exports by China decreased by 7.8% between 2011-15 and 2016-20.

    Chinese arms exports accounted for 5.2% of total arms exports in 2016-20. Pakistan, Bangladesh and Algeria were the largest recipients of Chinese arms, it added.

  • Army recruitment scam: CBI books six Lt Col-ranked officers and 17 others, carries out searches

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The CBI has booked six lieutenant colonel-ranked officers, 11 other personnel and six civilians for alleged corruption in recruitment in the Army through Service Selection Board centres, officials said on Monday.

    The agency carried out searches at 30 locations spread across 13 cities, including the Base Hospital in Delhi Cantonment, on Monday in connection with the case, they said.

    The search operation was spread across Kapurthala, Bhatinda, Delhi, Kaithal, Palwal, Lucknow, Bareilly, Gorakhpur, Visakhapatnam, Jaipur, Guwahati, Jorhat and Chirangon.

    Lt Col MCSNA Bhagwan of the Army Air Defence Corps, the alleged mastermind of the recruitment racket, is among those booked, they said.

    “Several incriminating documents related to recruitment process have been recovered during the searches which are being scrutinized for further investigation,” CBI spokesperson R C Joshi said.

    The CBI has acted on a complaint from Brigadier (Vigilance) V K Purohit alleging that on February 28, 2021 an input was received about alleged involvement of serving personnel in accepting bribe for clearance of review medical exam of temporarily rejected officer candidates at the Base Hospital in New Delhi.

    The complaint stated at Lt Col Bhagwan, currently on study leave, and Naib Subedar Kuldeep Singh are also involved in seeking gratification from potential officer candidates at SSB centres, they said.

    The agency has booked 17 Army personnel and six civilians, including relatives of officers, for allegedly demanding bribe and facilitating bribery, they said.

    The agency said that Lt Col Surender Singh of 31 SSB centre North; Lt Col YS Chauhan of 6 Mountain Division Ordnance Unit; Lt Col Sukhdev Arora of Directorate General of Recruiting; Lt Col Vinay, GTO, Selection Centre South, Bangalore; and Major Bhavesh Kumar allegedly facilitated the selection of candidates through SSB.

    It is alleged that bribes in several lakh rupees were paid to the officers and their relatives through cheques, cash, RTGS, UPI for the selection of candidates, they said.

    Undisclosed amount of bribes were received from 10-15 candidates by Lt Col Surender Singh and Major Bhavesh Kumar through their relatives who have also been booked.

    The agency has named wife of Maj Bhavesh Kumar Devyani, his father Surender Kumar and mother Usha Kumawat in the FIR as accused for allegedly receiving money, they said.

    Bhupender Bajaj, brother-in-law of Lt Col Surender Singh and one Pragati Singh who received funds on behalf of Naib Subedar Kuldeep Singh have also been named in the list of accused, they said.

    Among other booked by the CBI include father-son duo Havildar Pawan Kumar and his son Neeraj, Major Amit Fagna of field hospital, Delhi Cantonment, Naik Parvinder Jeet Singh, Sepoy Rohit Kanwar, Havildar Rajesh Kumar and Havildar Harpal Singh.

    It is alleged that Havildar Pawan Kumar paid bribes of at least Rs four lakh to Major Bhavesh Kumar and Rs 50,000 to Kuldeep Singh besides undisclosed amount of cash for the selection of his son Neeraj in SSB for NDA in December, 2020, they said.

    Lieutenant Navjot Singh Kanwar paid bribe of Rs 10 lakh to Lt Col Bhagwan through bank transfers to Kuldeep Singh and his friend Pragati while Cadets Hemant Dagar and Inderjeet in OTA made their way by paying illegal gratification to Major Bhavesh Kumar, the complaint alleged.

  • Indian army shares counter terrorist operation tactics with soldiers of Uzbekistan army  

    By Express News Service
    CHAUBATI: Indian Army imparted its tested counter terrorism operation skills to the soldiers of the Uzbekistan Army in its foreign training node at Chaubatia in Ranikhet, Uttarakhand under the ongoing Dustlik-II series of Exercise. The use of helicopters to insert soldiers into the operations area and also training on modern weapons like the Seg Sauer of the Indian soldiers are part of the capsule.

    Colonel Amit Malik, Commanding Officer of the troops of 13th Battalion of Kumaon Regiment nominated from Indian side told, “The aim of the exercise is to conduct sub-unit level operations in CT role under United Nations (UN) mandate and in the first two days both sides shared each-others drills, demonstrations and best practices.”

    “We are also showcasing our technological advancements… They shared their survival skills with us,” he stated while addressing the media..

    Talking about the weapons training Col Malik said “As far as weapons are concerned we have Sig Sauer rifles… we are sharing our weapons with the Uzbek troops. At present Uzbek troops are learning firing from Sig Sauer rifles,”

    The main personal weapon of the Uzbek Army is the Assault Klashnikov (AK) series of rifles. The Indian and Uzbekistan Army teams also practiced the static slithering as part of their ongoing bilateral exercise and it will be demonstrated using the MI-17 helicopters of the Indian Air force during the validation phase of the exercise.

    The 10-day exercise named as “Dustlik” which in Uzbek language means friendship began on March 10 and is being held under the United Nations mandate focusing on countering terrorism operations in the mountainous terrain.

    A total of 45 personnel, including 12 officers from Uzbekistan Army are participating in the exercise. Similar number of soldiers are also participating from the Indian side.

    Indian Army has selected troops of Kumaon Regiment and the Uzbekistan Army troops belong to different Units of its Central District.

    The Indian Army troops belong to the 13th Battallion of Kumaon Regiment which is also called as the Rezang La Battalion which lost its 114 men fighting valiantly agains the Chinese PLA in 1962 India China War.

    Dustlik will culminate on March 19 after the validation exercise of March 17 and 18 in which the observers from both the countries will test the skills learnt on various parameters like Cordon and Search Operation, heliborne jumps, room intervention and jungle range shooting,” the commanding officer said.

    India and Uzbekistan share a good relationship between the two countries. Uzbekistan deputy defence minister Major General Bakhodir Kurbanov and Uzbekistan Ambassador to India Dilshod Akhatov will attend the validation exercise on March 17-18. A Lieutenant General of the Indian Army will also be present on this day.

    The Indian Army procured the US made 72,400 SIG-716 assault rifles in end of 2019. The rifles have been given to all the frontline infantry troops and the rest have been distributed in the remaining infantry units.

    The SIG-716 weighing 3.82 kgs and has an effective range of 600m a soldier explained.

    Last September, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) had approved the procurement of a second batch of 72,400 SIG-716 rifles. The SIG-716 is meant to replace the INSAS rifles in use presently.

    The first edition of exercise Dustlik took place in Tashkent in Uzbekistan in 2019. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Uzbekistan counterpart Major General Bakhodir Nizamovich Kurbanov presided over the Curtain Raiser of the military drill in 2019.  

  • Sticky bombs new headache for J&K Police as security forces raise alert level

    Express News Service
    SRINAGAR:  Security officials are concerned with sticky bombs in possession of militants in Kashmir and forces have revised their Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and gone on extra alert to deal with the emerging threat.

    Inspector General of Police Vijay Kumar confirmed they have reports that sticky bombs have arrived in Kashmir.

    “We carried out searches to find these sticky bombs in the Valley but so far we have not recovered any such bomb,” he said.

    It was the first time that a top security official confirmed the presence of sticky bombs with militants in the Valley.

    “We have alerted security agencies and shared the details with them. I also went to Srinagar airport to show photographs of sticky bombs to CISF men.”

    He said they have revised SOPs to deal with the threat.

    “We have also put our men and officials on the ground on extra alert”.

    Over a dozen sticky bombs, which can be attached to vehicles and detonated remotely, were seized by security forces close to the border on February 14.

    These bombs, which are IEDs with magnetic properties, are mostly used by militants in Afghanistan. They have also been used in Iraq.

  • Sticky bombs: Security forces redraw SOPs; ask public not to leave vehicles unattended

    By PTI
    SRINAGAR: Suspecting that ‘sticky bombs’ may have entered the valley, security forces are redrawing their standard operating procedures and also advising general public not to leave their vehicles unattended, officials said on Sunday.

    In the middle of last month, the Jammu and Kashmir police recovered an arms consignment consisting of a Improvised Explosive Device (IED) with an in-built magnet which could be placed on any vehicle and exploded with the help of a timer or a remote.

    The magnetic IEDs, known as ‘sticky bombs’, have found their maximum use in war-ravaged Afghanistan where Taliban used them against US-led allied forces and in Iraq and Syria where IS terrorists have triggered them against the government forces.

    The ‘sticky bombs’, dropped by terrorists sitting across the border in Pakistan using drones, were recovered in Samba sector of Jammu region along the International Border on February 14.

    Immediately after their recovery, a video originated from across the border on social media which gave step by step instructions about its usage and triggering mechanism, a development which took the security agencies back to the drawing board for redrawing its Standard Operating Procedures (SoP) for their movement.

    The video issued in the name of People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF), believed to be a shadow outfit of the banned Lashker-e-Taiba terror group, explained about magnetic bombs and its damage capabilities.

    The video, originally used in Afghanistan training modules, has been given a voice over in Kashmiri language explaining how to use this bomb for more and effective damage of the target, the officials said.

    The security forces, since the recovery of the ‘sticky bombs’, have instructed their formations and general public at large not to leave their vehicle unattended, the officials said.

    In India, ‘sticky bombs’ were used by suspected Iranian terrorists in February 2012 to injure the wife of an Israeli diplomat.

    The development comes two years after a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist carried out a sensational attack when he rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into a bus carrying security forces that left 40 CRPF personnel dead.

    In response, India had carried out an air strike on terror camps located across the border.

    Sticky bombs, which were also used by the British forces during World War II, can be put on any vehicle and detonated through a remote control or an in-built timer, the officials said.

    This is yet another significant recovery after security forces found three Point Detonating (PD) fuses, used by the Pakistani army in their 82 mm mortar shells, from a terrorist in North Kashmir.

    About the PAFF, the officials said that changing names has been an age-old modus operandi of Pakistan’s external snooping agency ISI to divert the attention of the international community and label the unrest in Jammu and Kashmir as indigenous.

  • Despite disengagement at LAC, Troops and equipment remain at forward areas

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  The ground deployment of troops has not changed along the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh even as Indian and Chinese soldiers have disengaged from northern and southern banks of the Pangong Lake region.

    The stand-off persists at Hot Spring, Gogra, Depsang and Demchok.

    While troops and equipment were inducted swiftly using heavy lift aircraft in forward areas, de-induction would take more than six months as it would be done by road.

    The PLA had moved in nearly 50,000 troops with equipment, following which the Army matched the Chinese deployment.

    “There is no reduction of troops from and the equipment also remains deployed with troops. The disengagement from North and South Bank of Pangong Lake has been completed. The fallback ranges from around 500 metres from the original location to a few kilometres at other places,” an Army officer said.

    “Talks at various level are going on to agree to further disengagement from the other areas.”

    Both the countries began disengagement on February 10 in Pangong Tso area, with the PLA moving back its troops to the east of Finger 8 and the Indian Army deploying its troops to the Dhan Singh Thapa post, a little short of Finger 3.

  • No bigger irony than questioning valour of country’s Army: Rajnath

    By PTI
    GHAZIPUR: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said there can be no bigger irony than questioning the valour of the country’s Army.

    The defence minister said this while talking to reporters at Madaripur of the Saidpur area while attending the wedding of his adopted son Dr Vijendra.

    “We are proud of the might of the Indian Army. It is meaningless to doubt our Army. There can be nothing more ironic than questioning the Army. No one should doubt the valour and might of the Army of the country,” the defence minister said.

    Terming the Indian Army as highly valiant, Singh said it is unfortunate that questions are being asked by the Opposition despite China retreating from border points.

    The defence minister said it is a moment of great happiness that a poor child adopted by him has turned out a successful human through education.

    Every capable person should do such noble work, he said.

    Singh said when he was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, he had adopted two children and Vijendra is one of them who is now a doctor in a government hospital.

    He blessed the couple on the occasion.

    Union Minister Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey was also present on the occasion.