Tag: India

India-China Relations Slipping Back to 1962 War Situation, Analyst Believes

Sputnik News – June 17, 2020

New Delhi (Sputnik): The violent skirmishes between Indian and Chinese troops on Monday night, which resulted in dozens of casualties on both sides, were billed as the worst flare-up at the border since the two armies clashed in 1962.

Since Tuesday, Beijing and New Delhi have repeatedly accused each other of provoking clashes at the Line of Actual Control, where at least 20 Indian troops were killed on Monday night, but agreed to de-escalate tensions as soon as possible on Wednesday.

Rajeshwari Rajagopalan, a distinguished fellow at the private think-tank the Observer Research Foundation, felt the developments could not have resulted from a field-level flare-up between the two armies.

“They have been doing it with all their neighbours from the beginning of the year. You have seen the Chinese going in a very, very aggressive fashion with Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and to some extent Vietnam – sinking of Vietnamese fishing vessels and on the eastern side with Taiwan and we are the last one”, said Rajeshwarai.

Media reports from Beijing also indicated that the Chinese military recently conducted joint exercises “aimed at destruction of key hostile hubs in a high-elevation mountainous region”, the Chinese Army’s Tibet Military Command revealed on Tuesday (16 June). The exercises involved combat forces, special operative forces, army aviation troops, electronic countermeasure forces, engineering and anti-chemical warfare troops, long-range artillery systems, and ground-to-air missile systems.

https://sputniknews.com

India and China Move In More Troops as Border Tensions Rise

Archana Chaudhary, Sudhi Ranjan Sen – May 27, 2020

(Bloomberg) — India has moved additional troops along its northern border as it prepares for an extended conflict with neighbor China, after several rounds of talks failed to ease tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals.

China has already placed about 5,000 soldiers and armored vehicles within its side of the disputed border in the Ladakh region, an Indian government official said, asking not to be identified citing rules. India is adding a similar number of troops as well as artillery guns along the border to fend off the continuing incursions by Chinese army, the official said.

The standoff began on May 5, when troops clashed on the banks of Pangong Tso — a glacial lake at 14,000 feet in the Tibetan plateau — leaving scores of soldiers on both sides injured. Since then there has been a steady build up of troops amid continuing face-offs.

Diplomats in New Delhi and Beijing have begun talks after negotiations between Indian and Chinese military officials on May 22 and 23 brought no results, the official said. China’s move to step up incursions at two different locations along the 3,488 kilometer (2,167 mile) undemarcated border is a deviation from its earlier attempts to gain territory after the two nations fought a war in 1962,according to the officials.

U.S. President Donald Trump said in a tweet Wednesday that he had offered to mediate. There was no immediate response from India or China.

https://www.bloombergquint.com

India Is Experiencing a Heatwave, a Cyclone, a Global Pandemic, and the Worst Locust Invasion in a Quarter of a Century

ETH – May 28, 2020

(ETH) – India is dealing with unprecedented disasters that are all unfolding simultaneously. The Nation is seeing heatwaves, a killer cyclone, coronavirus, and now a locusts invasion that is unlike anything that has been seen there in over a half a century.

According to Strange Sounds, The Indian capital, of Delhi, just experienced temperatures rise to 47.6°C on Tuesday, as most of north India faced severe heatwave conditions. Churu in Rajasthan state reportedly recorded a temperature of 50°C – making it India’s highest prompting officials to warn people to stay indoors as far as possible.

These devastating temperatures are the highest that India has experienced in decades for this time of the year. In fact, the global weather tracking website El Dorado stated that the region was the hottest in the world on Tuesday. Weather officials also told the local media in India that part of the reason for the heatwave was the result of Cyclone Amphan – that struck parts of eastern India and Bangladesh last week.

“Super cyclone Amphan sucked out all the moisture from other parts of the country,” Kuldeep Shrivastava, the head of the regional weather forecasting center told the Hindustan Times newspaper. According to the report, Heatwaves over the past few years have produced a number of deaths across India.

In addition to the heatwave and the cyclone, swarms of locusts are destroying crops in parts of the country, including Rajasthan in what is being called the worst locusts invasion in a half-century threatening the livelihood of many farmers in the country.

https://endtimeheadlines.org

Christians Suffer Police Brutality, Illegal Arrests in Uttar Pradesh, India

Morning Star News – March 23, 2020

HYDERABAD, India, March 23, 2020 (Morning Star News) – Forcing them to pose like Christ on the cross, police last week beat Christians in custody on baseless charges in northern India’s Uttar Pradesh state, sources said.

On March 15 a church of 200 people was immersed in a Sunday service when 30 Hindu extremists brandishing hockey sticks and steel rods arrived with police at the worship hall built on the premises of the pastor’s home in the Kunda area of Pratapgarh District, sources said.

“Once I saw them armed with hockey sticks and steel rods, I understood that they had come to attack us,” Pastor Indresh Kumar Gautam, 24, told Morning Star News. “I got down from the pulpit and decided to face them before they cause nuisance or attack any of the members of the congregation.”

He could see they were young men of the Hindu extremist Bajrang Dal from his and neighboring villages, he said. The pastor said they accused the church of increasing conversions to Christianity in the area.

“I told them clearly that we do not convert anyone, and that we had only accepted Christian faith and would be only praying for everyone,” he said. “If anybody chooses to follow Jesus after attending prayers, they are free to do so as the Indian constitution has granted the right to practice one’s faith freely.”

The intruders shouted at the worshippers to disperse immediately or they would be beaten brutally, he said.

“They had already started attacking us, and the police kept looking on,” Pastor Gautam said. “They seized the Bibles and the sound instruments, but the officers both male and female did not stop them.”

Instead, police forced five worshippers into police vehicles and took them to the Kunda police station, he said.

https://www.christianheadlines.com

Double Whammy In India: Bird flu Comes Knocking In Times Of Lockdown

Strange Sounds – March 25, 2020

Two localities in Patna have been tested positive for bird flu.

Thousands birds have been culled in Kerala. A patient has also been confirmed positive for swine flu in Bihar. Several died from Monkey fever. What’s more for India?

While 1.3 billion people went under “total lockdown” for 21 days to combat the spread of the contagion in India, several states are reporting avian influenza in parallel.

Samples in Bihar and Kerala have tested positive for H5N1 virus. A patient has also been confirmed positive for swine flu in Bihar.

In Bihar, samples of dead crows were sent to the National Institute of High-Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD) at Bhopal, where the results confirmed the worst fears.

In Kerala, the state government has decided to destroy the disease at the source and mass culling have already started since a week to contain a possible outbreak.

Avian influenza A (H5N1) is contagious among birds and can be fatal. There have been instances of human beings getting infected with the virus:

“In most of the cases, people having direct or close contact with H5N1-infected poultry or H5N1-contaminated surfaces contracted the disease.

“The H5N1 strain of bird flu is regarded as highly pathogenic and can also cause disease and death in humans.

https://strangesounds.org