Newsletter 30 May

Top News of the Week

Week dedicated mainly to geopolitical situation over Laddhakh boarder, besides COVID-19 related crisis. Also, averting IED blast in JnK, claimed to be Pulwama 2.0 was also in limelight.

Headlines of the Week

Security forces avert car-bombing in Pulwama

Security forces avert car-bombing in Pulwama

Security forces spot and defuse vehicle laden with over 40kg of explosives.

A 2019 Pulwama-style car-bombing by a suicide bomber was prevented in south Kashmir on Thurs with security forces spotting and defusing a vehicle laden with over 40-45 kilos of explosives, as claimed by security forces. The militant, however, managed to escape.
According to sources, Pulwama Police got credible information on Wed’s night about a terrorist moving with an explosive-laden car ready to blast at some location.
They took out various parties of police and security forces and covered all possible routes keeping themselves and the police and security forces away from the road at safer locations.
He (Adil) intended to target vehicles of security forces.
The suspected vehicle came and a few rounds were fired towards it. A little ahead this vehicle was abandoned and the driver escaped in the darkness.
On close look, the vehicle was seen to be carrying heavy explosives in a drum on the rear seat. Possibly more explosive would be fitted elsewhere in the vehicle, sources added.
On Fri, JnK Police identifies Hidayatullah Malik, owner of the explosives-laden car which was intercepted in Pulwama. He is a resident of Shopian and joined Hizbul Mujahideen last year. It has also came in light that the number of car was registered on the name of a Jammu resident’s Bike.
“A timely action of security forces averted a major tragedy. A suicide attacker jumped two checkpoints before leaving a vehicle behind vehicle. The attacker left behind the vehicle late on Wednesday night at Ayegund area of Rajpora, Pulwama”, said Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kashmir, Vijay Kumar.
Hizb, Jaish behind act
- “Explosives were fitted in the vehicle jointly by Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Muhammad militants. Experts will study them”, the IGP said. The police have initiated an investigation if the explosives were procured locally or RDX was managed through any cross-Line of Control route.
- The IGP said the security agencies, including police, the Army and the CRPF, were getting inputs about the ‘fidayeen’ (suicide) attack plan. The explosives were defused by a bomb disposal squad team. “We concluded that 40 to 45kg of explosive material were used by militants after seeing that the vehicle went up 15 meters above the ground when the improvised explosive devices were being destroyed,” the IGP said.
- A militant, identified as Adil, who works for the Hizb and the Jaish, and two other militants of these outfits were behind the act. “They were planning the suicide attack on 17th of Ramadhan [Jang-e-Badr], but couldn’t do it due to our intensified operations against militants,” he said.

US-Based Consulting Firm's "Mystery" Role In India's War Against COVID-19

Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) role came to light when the government shared estimates by different agencies and experts of the number of deaths and infections averted by the coronavirus lockdown.
Boston Consulting Group, a US-based consulting firm, is assisting India’s Health Ministry in its fight against COVID-19, NDTV has learnt. BCG, headquartered in Boston and with a presence in 50 countries, is best known for providing strategic advice to businesses and governments on management solutions.
On its website, there is no specific mention of its expertise in responding to public health crises, like the present pandemic.
Boston Consulting Group (India) is privileged to work with Government stakeholders in preparing for the fight against COVID-19 including scenario mapping, planning responses and analysing trends. As a matter of policy, BCG cannot comment on the specifics of the work,” BCG said in a statement.
The Health Ministry declined to comment.
BCG’s role came to light when the government shared estimates by different agencies and experts, including the Statistics and Program Implementation Ministry, of the number of deaths and infections averted by the lockdown.
The government had shared five different estimates, of which BCG’s numbers were the highest. The consulting group’s projections said that between March 25 and May 15, about 36 to 70 lakh cases were avoided and 1.2 to 2.1 lakh lives were saved because of the lockdown. These were almost double the estimates given by others, which projected that about 14-29 lakh cases were avoided and anywhere between 37,000 to 78,000 deaths were averted.
It is, however, unclear how BCG arrived at these numbers. Multiple experts we spoke to said that the information shared by the government on BCG projections does not give enough details to ascertain the basis of the forecast.
NDTV has learnt that in addition to making projections, BCG has also been stationed in the Health Ministry’s COVID-19 control room.
While the chairman of BCG India, Janmejaya Sinha, declined to comment on the specific details of the work they do for the ministry, he confirmed that there is a BCG team working in the Health Ministry.
“We don’t talk about what we are doing with any client, anywhere. But in the Ministry of Health, they have acknowledged there is a team that is working,” he said.
The use of business consulting firms by the government, while not unusual in normal times, is fairly unprecedented in a pandemic, say experts.
Sujata Rao, former Union Health Secretary, said that this had not happened during her tenure at the ministry till December 2010. “We have never ever allowed any foreign, or even Indian management consultancy firms to be there. We have always worked with the WHO (World Health Organization). We have always requested organizations like the CDC (the US government’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention) to come and help us. But neither in HIV-AIDS nor in any of the viral epidemics we have faced like H1N1, H5N1, or for that matter, the polio program did we ever have any such arrangements where… consultancy firms like this would be working within the ministry’s control room,” she said.
T Sundararaman, former executive director of the government’s National Health Systems Resource Centre, said that he thinks “there are some serious problems in using such consultancy groups when it comes to public policy”, one of which is “client-driven research.”
“There are so many assumptions (in such models). So you know your business model wants more orders from the client, then you tend to look at those assumptions that are favourable,” he said.
“We don’t claim we are epidemiologists. But we certainly know what crisis reforms should be. We work with companies, governments doing that. And some of these are things that require discipline, and actually good consulting skills. Because you need to be able to dimensionalise the problem, you need to have an action agenda,” Mr Sinha said.
On whether there was a commercial role to the relationship with the Health Ministry, Mr Sinha said, “I have to be honest with you, I can’t talk about our engagement. We are not allowed to.”

NEIGHBORHOOD

BOTH INDIA AND CHINA REJECTS TRUMP'S OFFER TO MEDIATE IN SINO-INDIA BORDER STANDOFF

In a surprise move, Trump on Wed offered to “mediate or arbitrate” the raging border dispute between India and China, saying he was “ready, willing and able” to ease the tensions, amid the continuing standoff between the armies of the two Asian giants.

US President Donald Trump said that he has spoken to Indian PM Modi, who is not in a good mood about border tension with China. Interesting how he equated both India/ China, saying two countries with 1.4 billion people and very powerful militaries. He was “ready, willing and able” to ease the tensions, amid the continuing standoff between the armies of the two Asian giants.

China on Fri rejected by saying the two countries does not need the intervention of a “third party” to settle their differences.

Chinese FM spokesman Zhao Lijian said, the two countries did not want the “intervention” from a third party to resolve the current military standoff.

“Between China and India we have existing border-related mechanisms and communication channels”, Zhao told a media briefing.

“We have informed both India and China that the United States is ready, willing and able to mediate or arbitrate their now raging border dispute. Thank you!” Trump tweeted on Wed.

He reiterated his offer on Thurs while speaking to reporters at the White House. Responding to a question on his tweet, Trump renewed his offer, saying if called for help, “I would do that (mediate). If they thought it would help” about “mediate or arbitrate, I would do that,” he said.

India on Wed said it was engaged with China to peacefully resolve the border row, in a carefully crafted reaction to Trump’s offer to arbitrate between the two Asian giants to settle their decades-old dispute. “We are engaged with the Chinese side to peacefully resolve it,” MEA said, replying to questions at an online media briefing.

At the Chinese Foreign Ministry briefing, the spokesman said “China’s position on the China-India boundary question is consistent and clear”. “We have been implementing the important consensus reached by leaders of both the countries, observing the bilateral agreements and have been committed to safeguarding territorial sovereignty and security, stability and peace in the border area”, Zhao said.

He reiterated his earlier comment that “Now the overall situation in the China-India border area is stable and controllable”, he said, once again indicating a conciliatory tone amidst the tense situation along the border.

Several areas along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh and North Sikkim have witnessed major military build-up by both the Indian and Chinese armies recently, in a clear signal of escalating tension and hardening of respective positions by the two sides even two weeks after they were engaged in two separate face-offs.

India has said the Chinese military was hindering normal patrolling by its troops along the LAC in Ladakh and Sikkim and strongly refuted Beijing’s contention that the escalating tension between the two armies was triggered by trespassing of Indian forces across the Chinese side.

The MEA said all Indian activities were carried out on its side of the border, asserting that India has always taken a very responsible approach towards border management. India was deeply committed to protect its sovereignty and security, said by MEA on Thurs.

“The two sides have established mechanisms both at military and diplomatic levels to resolve situations which may arise in border areas peacefully through dialogue and continue to remain engaged through these channels,” MEA said at an online media briefing.

The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long LaC. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet while India contests it. Both sides have been asserting that pending the final resolution of the boundary issue, it is necessary to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas.

Background

As per INSA, even as the Central government has never admitted it, #China had occupied 640 sq km of Indian territory in Eastern Ladakh during the second term of the UPA regime under PM MM Singh.

In 2013, former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran after his visit to the region had informed the government that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) patrol had set a new LAC, thus occupying 640 sq km of Indian territory in Eastern Ladakh.

The un-demarcated LAC came into existence when China in 1962 occupied Aksai Chin, an uninhabited high-altitude wasteland of the former state of JnK, and now part of the UT of Ladakh.

The land grab in 2013 by the PLA happened after India had signed 9 agreements, including the BDCA, the same yr in Mar ahead of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to India. Incidentally, proposal for BDCA was presented by China, which had been keen to get it signed before Li’s visit.

Though China undermined the agreement soon after it was signed when it led an incursion in Depsang area of Ladakh in Apr, the standoff at Doklam and now at both Eastern (AP & Sikkim) and Western (Ladakh) frontiers between the two countries has left the sanctity of the BDCA in tatters.

While, India firm, won’t step back from areas where Chinese troops have intruded, so what made condition deteriorating? New Delhi is having close eye over the situation. India-China standoff: Top Army commanders meet to review security situation.

President Xi Jinping said on Tue, China would step up its preparedness for armed combat and improve its ability to carry out military tasks as the coronavirus pandemic is having a profound impact on national security, state television reported.

With the tiger no longer crouching, and in fact getting more capable of leaping out of the trenches now, the dragon obviously is breathing fire.
China has been unnerved by India’s slow but steady improvement in border infrastructure for faster mobility of its troops and weapon systems in forward areas over the last few years.
India may still have a long way to go in matching China’s border infrastructure, leave alone the stark asymmetry in terms of military forces and capabilities, but is now increasingly challenging the dragon’s dominance in road and air connectivity in disputed high-altitude stretches along the 3,488-km LAC from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh.
This has certainly irked China. One of the triggers for the ongoing troop confrontations in eastern Ladakh, for instance, is India’s completion of the 255-km Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) road last year and its fresh move to build some additional feeder link roads and bridges.
The DSDBO road, which has 37 bridges, runs almost parallel to the LAC to provide easier access to the Depsang and Galwan Valley areas while ending near the strategically-important Karako ram Pass.
It is linked at several places to troop and logistics bases in depth areas.
“The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is upset that some of our roads now provide swifter induction of troops in border regions of Ladakh.
With better infrastructure on both sides, there will of course be more incidents of rival troops coming face-to-face,” said a senior officer.
But the overall situation along the LAC is still far from adequate. Only 35 of the 73 “strategic’’ all-weather roads, with more east-west lateral links as well as better access routes to strategic peaks and valleys, identified for construction almost two decades ago, have been fully completed till now.
“In eastern Arunachal, for instance, most road heads are around 20 to 70 km away from the LAC.
Our patrols have to trudge for miles to physically dominate our claim lines. The PLA has no such problems,” he added.
But India has certainly sent an unmistakable strategic signal to China by re-activating and upgrading old advance landing grounds (ALGs) in both eastern Ladakh (Nyoma, DBO and Fukche) and Arunachal (Pasighat, Mechuka, Walong, Tuting, Along and Ziro ) over the last decade.
The landings of C-17 Globemaster-III and C-130J “Super Hercules” aircraft at these makeshift airstrips allows India to move troops and equipment to “threatened areas” along the LAC much more quickly now.
The ALG at DBO, the highest such airstrip in the world at an altitude of 16,614-feet, for instance, overlooks the strategic Karakoram Pass and is just a few km away from the LAC and the China occupied Aksai Chin region beyond.
China has assiduously built an extensive military infrastructure in the Tibet Autonomous Region, which includes 14 airbases, an extensive rail network and over 58,000-km of roads.

China is now also constructing underground hangers and parking bays for its fighters by digging tunnels into mountains at some of the airbases, as was reported by TOI earlier.

Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin attacked in Pakistan; ISI's role suspected

According to Gio TV, the attack on the Hizbul chief was planned by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
While further update on his health is awaited, speculations are rife that the attack on the Hizbul chief is linked to the recent tiff between ISI and Salauddin.
New Delhi: Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin was left grievously injured after he was attacked by unknown assailants in Islamabad on May 25, as reliable sources from Pakistan.
According to sources, the attack on the Hizbul chief was planned by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). While further update on his health is awaited, speculations are rife that the attack on the Hizbul chief is linked to the recent tiff between ISI and Salauddin.
Sources further revealed that the aim behind the attack was not to claim his life but send a message to the Hizbul chief. Meanwhile, Salahuddin was immediately shifted to a safer place following the attack.
For the last few months, Salauddin, who also heads the United Jihad Council (UJC), a Pakistan-based conglomeration of various terror groups sponsored by ISI, was unhappy with the agency over the lack of support to Hizbul. Recent reports stated that Hizbul cadres were not provided adequate training, weapons and ammunition, thus allowing a major fallout between Salahuddin and the ISI.
Moreover, after the elimination of Hizbul top commander Riyaz Naikoo in an encounter at south Kashmir by Indian Army, Salahuddin openly criticized the ISI during an interaction with the Hizbul cadres in PoJK.
Senior Hizbul sources in PoJK too believe that ISI may have planned to attack Salahuddin in a bid to send a strong signal to other outfit cadres to toe their line.

INTERNATIONAL

Indonesia rejected China's claims in the South China Sea; said not bound by claims contravening International law

Indonesia has rejected Chinese claims in the South China Sea in a letter written by Indonesia’s permanent mission to the United Nation to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Division of Ocean Affairs and Law of the sea of the body.

The letter as seen by WION said, “Indonesia reiterates that the nine-dash line map implying historic rights claim lacks international legal basis and is tantamount to upset UNCLOS 1982”.

Nine dash line is Chinese claim in the South China sea and nearly encompasses the entire area include the disputed islands of Paracel and Spratly. Earlier this year, China approved the establishment of 2 districts to administer disputed Paracel and Spratly island in the South China Sea, in an attempt to affirm sovereignty over the area.

The 2016 cases of Philippines v. China or the South China Sea Arbitration, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague had ruled that in favor of Philippines and said China has no historic right to the area based on the “nine-dash line”.

While this is not for the first time Indonesia has said so, but the letter sent on 26th May to UN come at a time when China in letters to UN has protested against Malaysia, Philipines and against both Malaysia and Vietnam submissions by the ASEAN countries on the continental shelf.

Supreme Court to hear on June 2 the petition seeking replacement of word ‘India’ with ‘Bharat’. The petitioner, Namah, has sought a direction to change the English name of country INDIA to BHARAT.