Under heat from India, Pak army offers truce, to keep LoC calm

January 17, 2013

india_pak_borderNew Delhi, Jan 17: In a major climb-down after facing military as well as diplomatic heat from India, the Pakistani Army on Wednesday shed its earlier confrontationist attitude to declare its troops would now firmly uphold the ceasefire agreement and exercise restraint on the 778-km-long Line of Control (LoC).

The Indian Army, while still furious over the beheading of one of its jawans, promptly accepted the truce offer made during the DGMO (director-general of military operations)-level talks to ensure the precarious situation along the LoC did not escalate "beyond the tactical level".

The beginning of the military de-escalation on the ground came even as Pakistani foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar struck a discordant note at the UN headquarters in New York to charge India with "war-mongering".

With sports, cultural and trade ties already taking a hit, it's clear the bilateral diplomatic chill will continue for some more time to come. A day after PM Manmohan Singh warned Pakistan that it could no longer be "business as usual" in the peace process, senior government officials on Wednesday reiterated Pakistan would have to investigate the barbaric beheading of the Indian soldier if it considered itself a ``civilized country''.

Indian DGMO Lt-General Vinod Bhatia also raised the beheading of Lance-Naik Hemraj by Pakistani Army regulars, in the Mendhar sector of J&K on January 8, with his Pakistani counterpart Major-General Ishfaq Nadeem Ahmed during their talk over the hotline at about 10am on Wednesday.

But while the Pakistani Army remained in denial mode on this matter as before, it did not exhibit the "belligerence" displayed earlier during the DGMO-level talks on January 9 as well as the flag meeting at the Chakkan-Da-Bagh crossing point in Poonch district on January 14.

"The conversation on Wednesday lasted for just about 10 minutes. The Pakistani DGMO said orders had been passed to his troops to strictly observe the ceasefire and exercise restraint. The two DGMOs came to an understanding on not allowing the situation to escalate," said a senior officer. Added another, "Pakistani Army has violated the ceasefire agreement around 15 times since January 1, including four times since Tuesday evening. We were only retaliating to firing from the other side...Let's see for how long the Pakistani Army sticks to its new position."

India had already decided that it would "militarily respond" to Pakistani firing only "tactically" without unnecessarily "upping the ante", in a meeting chaired by the PM on Monday, which was attended among others by the three Service chiefs — Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne, Gen Bikram Singh and Admiral D K Joshi.

Gen Singh had also declared that all his battalion commanders on the LoC would retaliate "aggressively and offensively" but only if the Pakistan Army provoked them by violating the ceasefire or pushing militants into J&K.

Holding that while the beheading had "angered" India at the strategic level, Pakistan's cross-border raid of January 8 was "a tactical operation'' that would be answered "at the tactical level" only, he added.

On Wednesday, once again rejecting Pakistan's charges about Indian troops crossing the LoC, the Army chief said any casualties across the border would have taken place due to the retaliatory firing. "Our jawans don't cross the LoC. We honour human rights. We fire in retaliation when provoked," he said, after meeting the family of Lance-Naik Hemraj at Khairiar village in Uttar Pradesh.

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Agencies
May 30,2020

New Delhi, May 30: The Congress on Friday described the first year of the Modi government as a "year of disappointment, disastrous management and diabolical pain".

Congress leader K C Venugopal said the six years of the Modi dispensation have seen fraying of bonds of empathy, fraternity and brotherhood with increase in acts of communal and sectarian violence.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said that at the end of six years, it appears the Modi government is at war with its people and is inflicting wounds on them, instead of healing them.

"It is inflicting wounds on Mother India," he said.

"This government is trying to fill coffers of the select rich and is inflicting pain on the poor," Surjewala said.

On the BJP's charge of the Congress playing politics over the COVID-19 crisis, Venugopal said the opposition party did not indulge in any politics and gave suggestions instead.

"Being a responsible opposition, it is our duty to raise the problems faced by the common people. As opposition, we highlighted the failures of the government," he said.

Venugopal said the government "is totally insensitive" to the plight of migrant labourers and farmers.

Surjewala also demanded that a virtual session of Parliament be convened immediately to discuss pressing issues and the due process be set in motion for holding of meetings of various parliamentary committees.

Modi and his cabinet had taken oath on this day last year for a second term in office.

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News Network
February 18,2020

New Delhi, Feb 18: Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot is the richest minister in the AAP government, according to a report released by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Monday.

In a statement, the NGO said, Delhi Election Watch and ADR have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of all the seven-party leaders including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

According to the statement, the minister with the lowest declared total assets is Gopal Rai with assets worth Rs 90.01 lakh.

"The minister with the highest declared total assets is Kailash Gahlot from Najafgarh constituency with assets worth Rs 46.07 crore," it stated.

The report by ADR comes on the day Kejriwal and his six ministers took charge after the formation of the new AAP government.

Chief Minister Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues took charge of their respective offices on Monday and asserted that they would work to fulfil the promises made in the "guarantee card", released during the poll campaign, including reduction in pollution and expansion of metro network.

Members of his Cabinet are -- Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, Rajendra Pal Gautam, Imran Hussain, Gopal Rai and Kailash Gahlot.

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News Network
May 9,2020

New Delhi, May 9: Three promoters of Ram Dev International, recently booked by the CBI for allegedly cheating a consortium of six banks to the tune of Rs 411 crore, have already fled the country before the State Bank of India reached the agency with the complaint, officials said on Saturday.

The CBI had recently booked the company engaged in export of Basmati rice to the West Asian and European countries and its directors Naresh Kumar, Suresh Kumar and Sangita on the basis of complaint from the State Bank of India (SBI), which suffered the loss of more than Rs 173 crore, they said.

The company had three rice milling plants, besides eight sorting and grading units in Karnal district with offices in Saudi Arabia and Dubai for trading purposes, the SBI complaint said.

Besides SBI, other members of consortium are Canara Bank, Union Bank of India, IDBI, Central Bank of India and Corporation Bank, they said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) did not carry out any searches in the matter because of the coronavirus-induced lockdown, the officials said.

The agency will start the process of summoning the accused, incase they do not join the investigation, appropriate legal action will be initiated, they said.

According to the complaint filed by SBI, the account had become non-performing asset (NPA) on January 27, 2016.

The banks conducted a joint inspection of properties in August and October, nearly 7-9 months later only to find Haryana Police security guards deployed there, they said.

"On inquiry, it has been come to notice that borrowers are absconding and have left the country," the complaint filed on February 25, 2020, after over a year of account becoming NPA, the officials said.

The complaint alleged that borrowers had removed entire machinery from old plant and fudged the balance sheets in order to unlawfully gain at the cost of banks'' funds, it said.

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