General Underlines Need for Combat Readiness

While cautioning against any kind of hysteria, Chief of the Army Staff, Deepak Kapoor has said that all Indian defences were being in the process of being geared up as a fallout of escalating Indo-Pak tensions I the aftermath of the audacious terror strikes in Mumbai last November.

General Kapoor said steps were being taken to strengthen the country’s defences. He said that the Mumbai terror attacks necessitated concentrated efforts to curb response time by the Armed Forces in the event of a calamity.

He added that the Army needed to maintain highest levels of combat readiness at all time.

"After the Mumbai terror attacks, it has been decided to get equipment, which would be of use to counter such terrorist strikes. That is more of a counter-terrorist equipment," said the General.

"We are looking at it from the perspective of improving the capability of our special forces. And to improve the capability of the 'Ghatak' platoons within every battalion. Both to react to any such terror activities," he said.

Stating that his Key Result Areas, when he took over as Army chief, was modernisation of the forces, Kapoor said it continued to be so because of the simple reason that the primary role of the Army was ensuring the territorial integrity of the country.

"There is a requirement that we continue to upgrade our conventional capability and ensure the Indian Army remains a potent fighting force in any future scenario," he said.

Kapoor said the army had already placed the Request for Proposals for all types of artillery guns, "because we have not got a single gun since 1986 when Bofors happened."

"I am happy to say that we have issued RFPs for all different types of artillery guns, be they towed, self-propelled and wheeled guns or ultra-light howitzers. This process is on going. It takes time, but it will fructify in due course," he informed.

He said the army was also getting special night vision devices for its troops to end their "night-blindness" during operations.

Noting that Pakistan has moved troops towards border with India, Kapoor said New Delhi has kept all options open - diplomatic, economic and the "fighting option", which is being seen as a last resort.

Kapoor however, cautioned that despite the tension between the two countries in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks there was no need to create any hysteria.

"We expect Pakistan to move some troops from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas to its eastern borders with India," he stated. He said the Indian Army had already "factored this" into its planning and there was "no cause for concern" in India.

"Nuclear weapons are a worry for entire world and we hope Pakistan's weapons are as secure as any other civilised nation's," Kapoor added.

On the issue of deploying troops in Afghanistan, Kapoor said that the deployment of Indian troops in another country was a political decision.

Israeli Rights Groups Slam Military Action

Even as the Israeli offensive on the Gaza strip continued to destroy civilian lives and a section of the media celebrated the death toll that crossed a gory 1000 on Wednesday, away from the madness of artillery fire and war cries, Rights Groups in Israel say the action on Gaza civilians amounts to gross misconduct.

In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defence Minister Ehud Barak and the army top brass, the nine rights groups said civilians in Gaza were being subjected to "extreme humanitarian distress."

"The level of harm to the civilian population is unprecedented," they wrote, accusing troops of "making wanton use of lethal force which has to date caused the deaths of hundreds of uninvolved civilians."

Since the start of Israel's massive war in Gaza, over 1,000 people have been killed in countless aerial bombardments and 10 days of heavy fighting, medics in Gaza said on Wednesday.

That number includes 315 children and 100 women. Another 4,700 people have been wounded in Israel's largest-ever offensive in the coastal territory.

Palestinian medical sources say civilians make up around half of the dead while Israeli military sources say 550 militants have been killed.

With the borders sealed, there was no place of safety for civilians to flee the fighting, meaning they were forced to live in fear and terror, the letter charged.

Gaza's health system was in a state of collapse and troops were delaying or preventing access to medical treatment, meaning many people were dying who could have been saved, they said.

"This kind of fighting constitutes a blatant violation of the laws of warfare and raises the suspicion... of the commission of war crimes," it said, describing the campaign as "a clear and present danger to the lives and well-being of tens of thousands of civilians."

Michael Sfard, a human rights lawyer with Israeli rights watchdog Yesh Din said that in the days and months following the offensive, Israel would be called to account.

"However, today our activity should be focused on stopping what constitutes a terrible danger to tens of thousands of people," he told reporters in Jerusalem.

The groups lay out five key demands: an end to the disproportionate harm to civilians; the opening of a route for civilians to escape the fighting; the provision of medical care to the sick and injured; free access for medical teams; and the secure operation of electricity, water and sewage systems.

Among the signatories of the letter were B'tselem, the Public Committee against Torture in Israel, Physicians for Human Rights -- Israel, Yesh Din, and Amnesty International's Israel section.

Several protest rallies calling for an immediate end to the aggression and highlighting ghe need to foster better Israel-Arab relations have been held in various parts of Israel since Jerusalem started sweeping air raids across the Palestinian held coast.

(Agency inputs)

Bashful Maya Scales Down Celebrations

With Opposition parties planning a series of demonstrations on Thursday to slam the Uttar Pradesh state government over alleged extortion by ruling party members, Chief Minister and BSP supremo Mayawati has decided to scale down celebrations planned to mark her 53d birthday on January 15.

While the SP will observe January 15 as "thu thu diwas" (day of shame), the Congress said it would organise a state-wide protest against the alleged anti-people policies of the state government.

Bhartiya Kisan Union led by Mahendra Singh Tikait plans to observe the day as Dhikkar Diwas and will hold demonstrations.

The opposition Congress, BJP and Samajwadi Party, which slammed Mayawati for accepting monetary gifts from party MLAs who indulge in extortion to raise the amount, say they will stage demonstrations against Mayawati on the day.

The opposition upped attacks on the third front prime ministerial hopeful after a BSP MLA was charged with the murder PWD engineer MK Gupta who was tortured to death as he refused to ‘donate’ for the occasion.

Under attack from the opposition, Mayawati on her part has planed to scale down birthday celebrations and is expected to announce several pro-poor schemes.

Likely to be announced on Thursday is ‘Sarvjan Hitay Gareeb Basti Yojna’, wherein land would be allotted at throwaway prices to people dwelling on the wrong side of the poverty index.

Mayawati will also announce financial assistance of upto Rs 25000 to half a million girl students pursuing secondary education.

Daddy or Democracy - Priya Poser for Sanjay

Akbar Khan

Its not easy being Sanjay Dutt, whatever the superstar does or plans to do raises eyebrows and earns him the ire of those he loves and trusts. Everything from his boyhood misadventures to the women in his life or even his political affiliations come in for huge criticism in apparent efforts to dwarf the strapping six footer.

Democracy or daddy is the question put into the public domain by Sanjay’s parliamentarian sister Priya Dutt on Wednesday, who suggested that Sanjay’s new found political affinity with the Samajwadi Party would have irked their late father Sunil Dutt.

Priya, perhaps, failed to note that as one of the most respected figures in the Congress party her late father would have been proud of Sanjay for having sought and found his own ideological principality rather than waiting in line to reap a harvest sowed in by his parents.

Sanjay’s decision to stay away from the Congress, despite irking Priya has saved the Congress further ignominy as the party has come in for repeated attacks from the main Opposition BJP for its dynastic character, especially as most young leaders in the Congress today have strong family roots in the party which now awaits the third generation of the Nehru-Gandhi clan.

A man’s man, Sanjay has been faulted on several occasions but his unique ability to risk everything for what he believes in, and a god given talent to constantly rebuild himself is what sets him apart from the snotty ‘Baba Log’ that inhabit Pali Hill or even the LBZ for that matter.

Troops Advance, Civilian Plight Deteriorates in Lanka

Children of a lesser God, civilian Tamils inhabiting the country’s northern peninsula continued to bear the brunt of an advancing military and determined Tiger rebels as government troops, according to Sri Lankan administration captured the last few miles of rebel held land in the Jaffna region.

Regaining full control of the region after a gap of almost a decade is another strategic victory for the government which has termed it present surge as decisive war on Lankan Tamil rebels, say correspondents.

The capture follows the recent fall of the town of rebels’ political and administrative headquarter Kilinochchi and the strategically important Elephant Pass.

"Troops liberated Chundikulam, the land mass that links the Jaffna peninsula with the mainland," the defence ministry website said of the latest fighting.

There has been no comment on the claim from the Tamil Tigers.

The peninsula and its capital, Jaffna, have long been regarded as the symbolic heart of their 25-year-old separatist insurgency.

The report on the Reuters website quoted Military spokesman Brig Udaya Nanayakkara saying the army did not suffer any casualties in the latest action.

Sri Lanka bans independent journalists from entering the war zone, making it virtually impossible to verify claims made on either side of the conflict.

The Tigers have been fighting for a separate homeland for 25 years. At least 70,000 people have been killed in the insurgency.

Human rights groups such as Amnesty International meanwhile say that they are increasingly concerned about the plight of civilians in the conflict area.

A pro-rebel website www.TamilNet.com says the advancing government troops have repeatedly shelled civilian inhabitants in the region.

According to a Reuters India, some 800 Tamil civilians fled the fast shrinking battle zone in Sri Lanka’s war with itself.

The government troops are now advancing towards the port of Mullaittivu, where aid agencies say about 230,000 people are trapped in an area of no more than 330 square km.

In a letter to Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon ahead of his visit to the country, Amnesty said that more than a quarter of a million people, mostly Tamils, face "immense hardship".

They say that civilians are "running out of space in the face of intensified fighting between the two sides".

"The Sri Lankan government's recent recapture of Killinochchi has meant that hundreds of thousands of people have been compressed into a smaller area and are increasingly vulnerable," the letter states.

The government said this week it was fully prepared to handle "the mass exodus of civilians" the fighting with the rebels might cause.

Amnesty has also called on the Indian foreign secretary to raise the issue of attacks on the media and press.

(With BBC Inputs)