Captain Abhilasha Barak first woman combat aviator in the army, Kashmir TV artiste Amreen Bhat shot dead by terrorists in Budgam; nephew injured, Pakistan: Imran Khan's Azadi march reaches Islamabad, capital turns into a battleground, Army reviews, bolsters deployment along LAC, and other top news in this bulletin.
Thirty years after India began inducting women as officers in the armed forces, Captain Abhilasha Barak on Wednesday became the first woman to join the Army Aviation Corps as a helicopter pilot after completing a year-long course at the Combat Army Aviation Training School at Nashik in Maharashtra, the army said. Barak hails from Haryana and is the daughter of a retired colonel. She was commissioned in the Army Air Defence Corps in September 2018. She was awarded ‘wings’ along with 36 army pilots by Army Aviation director general Lieutenant General Ajay Kumar Suri during a valedictory ceremony at the Nashik-based training school, the army added. Barak has been assigned to the second flight of 2072 Army Aviation Squadron that operates the Dhruv advanced light helicopter (ALH), officials familiar with the matter said. While women officers in the Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy have been flying helicopters for long, the army took a decision in early 2021 to allow them to opt for its aviation wing. Until now, women officers were assigned only ground duties in army aviation.
People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) on Wednesday termed the life sentence to Kashmiri separatist Yasin Malik in a terror funding case “unfortunate”, saying the National Investigation Agency (NIA) court has ‘delivered verdict, but not justice’. The Gupkar alliance, which is campaigning for the autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir by restoring the special status, said in a statement that it fears the court’s decision will further alienate the people of Kashmir. “Life imprisonment given to Yaseen Malik is unfortunate and a setback to the efforts for peace. We are afraid that this will further compound the uncertainties in the region and will only fuel more alienation and separatist feelings,” the statement read. “The triumphalism being displayed by the BJP and the corporate media is bound to prove counterproductive,” it added. The Gupkar alliance suggested Malik should exhaust all legal opportunities to contest this verdict. On Wednesday, a Delhi court sentenced Malik to life imprisonment for waging war against the State, saying that his crimes struck at the heart of the idea of India but holding that they didn’t fall under the “rarest of rare” category. A 35-year-old woman was killed and her 10-year-old nephew injured after they were fired upon by terrorists in the Chadoora area of central Kashmir’s Budgam district on Wednesday. Local reports claimed that Amreen Bhat was a TV artiste and a singer who uploaded her songs on various social media platforms. The attack was conducted by three terrorists of the proscribed terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), police said. “At around 1955 hrs, terrorists fired upon one lady Amreen Bhat D/o Khazir Mohd Bhat R/o Hushroo Chadoora at her home. She was shifted to hospital in injured condition where doctors declared her dead. Her 10 year old nephew who was also at home recieved bullet injury on his arm,” the Jammu and Kashmir Police tweeted. Medical superintendent of Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital Kanwarjit Singh said the woman was brought dead to the hospital. “She had a bullet shot in her neck, ” he said. Reacting to the incident, National Conference leader and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted, “Shocked & deeply saddened by the murderous militant attack on Ambreen Bhat. Sadly Ambreen lost her life in the attack & her nephew was injured. There can be no justification for attacking innocent women & children like this. May Allah grant her place in Jannat.” The army was called in by the Shehbaz Sharif government in the early hours on Thursday to protect the Red Zone of Islamabad as former prime minister and PTI chief Imran Khan entered the capital with his Azadi march. The government said Army has been deployed to protect important buildings like Supreme Court, Parliament House, Prime Minister House, Presidency, Pakistan Secretariat and Diplomatic Enclaves. Islamabad turned into a battleground with the heavy shelling of the police and the reported vandalism of the PTI workers. Imran Khan reached the D Chowk of Islamabad on Thursday morning. Just before Imran Khan entered Islamabad, reports of continuous tear gas shelling in the Blue Area emerged. Pakistan’s Geo News reported its office came under the attack of the PTI workers injuring some media workers. No police personnel were present outside of the building for its security, it reported. The new Chief of Army Staff General Manoj Pande conducted a security review of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s positions in East Ladakh and counter-deployments of the Indian Army earlier this month, in the wake of the Chinese Army constructing a double-span bridge 16 kilometres east of the once contested finger 8 on the north banks of Pangong Tso. Making his priorities clear, General Pande spent his first visit to East Ladakh after taking over as Chief on May 1, auditing LAC deployments, people familiar with the matter said. HT learns that General Pande was satisfied with Indian Army deployments along the 1597 km LAC in East Ladakh, but a serious note has been taken of frantic military infra upgradation by PLA in Occupied Aksai Chin area. Both the armies are matched in deployment across the LAC with Chinese armour and rocket regiments stationed at Rudog base, south of Pangong Tso, and at Xiadullah in the restive Xinjiang military region. The PLA Air Force has stationed its fighters and bombers at Gar Gunsa across Demchok and at Hotan airbase in Xinjiang. The Indian Army is also fully deployed along the LAC with roads and bridges that can accommodate tanks or armoured personnel carriers all the way up to Daulet Beg Oldi and as many as seven bridges coming up on Galwan river to handle any military emergency.
