News Report: India Braces Itself for Influx of Refugees, Seals Its Borders With Myanmar

India fears that Rohingyas fleeing Rakhine province in Myanmar may enter its territory through the countries' mutual border, which lacks a protective fence. In response, a team led by the head of the Department of Internal Security of the Ministry of Home Affairs was sent to the region by Home Minister Rajnath Singh last week.

New Delhi (Sputnik) — The Indian government is reviewing the impact of a bilateral agreement with Myanmar, which allows visa-free movement among citizens of the two countries within 16 km of the Indo-Myanmar border, in the wake of the Rohingya refugee crisis.

Sources have told Sputnik that security officials and senior officials from India’s Ministry of Home Affairs visited the border areas of four north-eastern states.

"India apprehends that Rohingya fleeing Rakhine may seek to infiltrate into our side through the unfenced border. That is why a team, led by special secretary (internal security), visited the border on the instruction of Union home minister Rajnath Singh last week," a senior Intelligence Bureau official told The Telegraph.

News Story: Indian firing kills 1 Pakistani civilian: Pakistan's army

ISLAMABAD, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Pakistan's army said that at least one civilian was killed and four others injured in Indian firing along the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed Kashmir region on Wednesday.

"Indian troops resorted to unprovoked fire along LoC in Nikiyal Sector targeting civil population with heavy weapons including mortars and anti-tank guided missile (ATGMs)," a statement from the military said.

"Pakistan Army troops responded effectively on posts undertaking firing. Reports of casualties to Indian troops and material," the statement said.

Pakistan and India had declared ceasefire along the LoC in the disputed Kashmir region and the Working Boundary in 2003. Both, however, routinely accuse each other of violating the ceasefire.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: Raziq Says Pakistan Positioning Insurgents Along The Durand Line

Kandahar police chief General Abdul Raziq (2015)

By Anisa Shahid

Pakistan has big plans for Afghanistan, has established large insurgent training camps on both sides of the Durand Line and have stationed militants along the de facto border, Kandahar police chief General Abdul Raziq told TOLOnews on Monday. 

Raziq also accused Iran, along with Pakistan, of supporting, equipping and training insurgents and said Pakistan is Afghanistan’s enemy. In line with this he called on the international community to increase pressure on Islamabad.

“They (Pakistan) have positioned terrorists on both sides of the Durand Line; they train them there and want to have control over the southern region and along Afghanistan’s shared borders with Iran and Pakistan. They want to weaken government and are involved in drug smuggling, the control of mines and with the money they earn in this way, they create terrorist centers here and finance them,” said Raziq.

According to him, Pakistan aims to transfer Quetta Council, known us Quetta Shura, to southern Helmand province where Taliban leaders and their families will be based.

Read the full story at TOLOnews

News Report: Border Guards Stop Rohingyas From Entering India

Suhail Anjum

NEW DELHI — India has stepped up security along its largely porous eastern border with Bangladesh and is using pepper spray and stun grenades to block Rohingya Muslims, who are fleeing violence in their homeland of Myanmar, Indian officials said Saturday.

Border forces, citing security risks, have been authorized to prevent attempts to enter the country.

"We don't want to cause any serious injury or arrest them, but we won't tolerate Rohingya on Indian soil," said a senior official with India's Border Security Force (BSF) in New Delhi.

R.P.S. Jaswal, a deputy inspector general of the BSF, patrolling a large part of the border in the eastern state of West Bengal, said his troops were told to use both what he called "chili spray" and stun grenades to keep Rohingya out of India.

About 40,000 Rohingya refugees who passed through Bangladesh from Myanmar are already inside India. On Thursday, India Home Minister Rajnath Singh called for their deportation as illegal migrants, saying they had not applied for refugee status.

India's National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued a notice to the government about the plan to deport Rohingyas. The NHRC says it is assisting Rohingyas on humanitarian grounds because they were being persecuted in Myanmar.

This story first appeared on Voice of America & is reposted here with permission.

News Story: China, Vietnam pledge to maintain border stability

JINPING, Yunnan Province, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Military delegations from China and Vietnam attended the fourth high-level border meeting, with the two sides agreeing to maintain border stability and push bilateral ties.

The two-day meeting was held in northwest Vietnam's Lai Chau Province and southwest China's Yunnan Province, starting Saturday.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: Two Children Killed In Cross Durand Line Shelling By Pakistan

Pakistan Army A100 Rocket Launcher

At least two children were killed and three others were wounded in fresh rocket shelling from Pakistan on Thursday. 

The rockets landed in Nazian district in Nangarhar province – which lies along the Durand Line, the de facto border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. 

Nangarhar governor’s spokesman Attaullah Khogyani said Pakistani military has restarted the cross Durand Line incursions and has fired off dozens of rockets into Afghanistan recently. 

Read the full story at TOLOnews

News Report: India to Construct 108 Missile-Proof Hangars Along China Border

A proposal awaiting government approval since 2015 was strongly backed by the prime minister’s office in the aftermath of the recent border tensions with China.

New Delhi (Sputnik) — The Indian government has cleared a proposal for constructing next-generation hardened shelters for aircraft of the Indian Air Force deployed at the eastern and northeastern airfields that border China. The hangars are designed by the state-owned Defense Research and Development Organization.

The Indian Defense Ministry will initially release $150 million of the total estimated cost of $750 million for the proposed shelters, which can withstand missiles and bombs of up to 2,000 pounds.

The proposed shelters would dot forward areas including Leh, Ladakh and the northeastern states and would also cover the newly built advanced landing grounds — Tuting, Mechuka, Along, Passighat, Vijaynagar, and Ziro — along with the India-China border.

News Story: Top brass of Pakistan, India speak after cross-border shelling of civilians

ISLAMABAD, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan and Indian military officials on Friday spoke after Indian cross-border shelling killed at least six civilians and injured 26 others on the Pakistani side, Pakistan's army said.

The army said earlier that Indian forces shelled Pakistani areas on Thursday along the border on the eastern Punjab province.

Special hotline contact was established between Pakistani and Indian director generals of military operations, and the issue of deliberately targeting Pakistani civilians was raised, an army statement said.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: Firing on Kashmir border claims civilian lives on both sides

NEW DELHI, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- With no let up in skirmishes on Line of Control (LoC) and international border (IB) dividing Kashmir, the civilians on both sides of the divide continue to bear the brunt.

On Thursday evening, the two sides exchanged fire in Arnia, Ramgarh and R S Pura sectors along the International Border in Jammu and Samba districts.

According to police, the firing wounded four civilians, besides damaging several houses.

"Four civilians were injured in the firing," a police spokesman said. "The firing also perished cattle besides damaging residential houses."

The spokesman said authorities have evacuated around 800 civilians to safer places.

Meanwhile, four civilians including two women were killed on Pakistani side in Charwah sector on Thursday.

Read the full story at Xinhua

Related Story:

• 6 civilians killed, 26 injured in Indian firing: Pakistani army

News Story: India, Pakistan troops exchange fire on Kashmir border

by Peerzada Arshad Hamid

NEW DELHI, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- The troops of India and Pakistan exchanged heavy fire and shelling on Monday for the fourth-straight day on the International Border (IB) in Kashmir, officials said.

The exchange of fire was reported along the IB in Arnia area of R S Pura sector of Jammu, the winter capital city of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

"Pakistani troops again violated the cease-fire by firing mortars and resorting to heavy firing in Arnia sector along the IB last night. The shelling targeting Indian positions and civilian areas started around 9:00 p.m. (local time) and was intermittently going on since then," a police official said.

According to Indian officials, the border guards posted in the sector effectively retaliated to the firing and the exchange of fire continued for several hours.

No casualty was reported on the Indian side in the fresh exchange of fire, officials said.

On Saturday night a woman was killed and five others wounded in Arnia sector.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: China, Laos agree to boost military exchanges, cooperation

VIENTIANE, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- China and Laos have vowed to deepen bilateral high-level military exchanges and cooperation during a visit by Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister Chang Wanquan to Laos which concluded on Saturday.

During his four-day visit, Chang met with General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and Lao President Bounnhang Vorachit and held talks with Lao Defense Minister Chansamone Chanyalath.

Chang also co-chaired the first China-Laos high-level frontier meeting between the two armed forces with the Lao defense minister.

The two sides expressed satisfaction with the development of the friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries and two militaries, and promised to fully implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and two parties, according to a joint statement issued on Saturday.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Report: Japan Calls Out Pakistan on Terrorism, Backs India's Position

India and Japan have agreed to strengthen cooperation against global terror groups including al-Qaeda, Daesh and Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

NEW DELHI (Sputnik) — Backing India's stand on cross-border terrorism, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe minced no words while asking Islamabad to bring to book the perpetrators of terror strikes, including those involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks and the 2016 Pathankot terror attack in a joint statement issued after the 10th India-Japan Annual Summit.

"They shared the view that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations is a global scourge that must be forcefully combated through concerted global action in the spirit of 'zero tolerance'," the joint statement read.

Shinzo Abe and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi also called upon all countries to work towards rooting out terrorist safe havens and infrastructure, disrupting terrorist networks, financing channels and halting the cross-border movement of terrorists, in an apparent reference to Pakistan.

News Report: Bangladesh Protests Myanmar Airspace Violations as Tensions Mount Over Rohingya

WASHINGTON — Bangladesh is protesting a violation of its airspace by helicopters and drones from Myanmar, as tensions between the two countries escalate over a massive influx of Rohingya Muslim refugees into Bangladesh.

Bangladesh's foreign ministry summoned the charge d'affaires of Myanmar's embassy in Dhaka and warned the airspace violations could lead to “unwarranted consequences.”

This is the third time in three weeks that Bangladesh has summoned Myanmar's envoy as the refugee crisis of the Rohingya grows.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Friday that the number of Rohingya refugees who have fled across the border to Bangladesh has climbed to 391,000.

Rohingya refugees say Myanmar's military and members of the Buddhist majority have attacked their villages in northern Rakhine state, forcing them to flee. There are reports of villages being burned to the ground and the military deliberately targeting civilians, but access to the region is limited, so the reports can't be independently verified.

News Story: India-Pakistan border skirmishes kills border guard on Kashmir border

SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- An Indian border guard belonging to Border Security Force (BSF) was killed Friday during skirmishes between troops of India and Pakistan on International Border (IB) in Kashmir, officials said.

The exchange of small arms and artillery was reported along the IB in Arnia area of Ranbir Singh Pura sector of Jammu, the winter capital city of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

"The firing is still going on," the officials said.

On Wednesday night, three border guards were wounded in a similar exchange. Indian border guards also claimed killing two Pakistani rangers.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Report: Army Chief - India Must Be Ready for War on 2 Fronts

India’s army chief has warned the nation to be prepared for a possible two-front war — with China and Pakistan — at the same time.

General Bipin Rawat warned China would continue its efforts to “nibble away” at India’s territory, as it did during a recent standoff in the Himalayas that ended last week. He said more incidents like the standoff at Doklam plateau in Bhutan could lead to a larger conflict on India’s northern border.

If that were to happen, Rawat warned, it is possible Pakistan would seize the opportunity to strike its arch nemesis from the west.

“We have to be prepared for conflict on the northern and western borders,” he said.

“As far as our western adversary is considered,” he said in reference to Pakistan, “we don’t see any scope of reconciliation because their military, the polity, and the people in that nation have been made to believe that India wants to break their country into pieces.”

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since both nations gained independence from Britain 70 years ago. India and China have also fought once since then.

All three nations are nuclear powers, but Rawat said that will not necessarily be a deterrent.

“Nuclear weapons are weapons of deterrence. Yes, they are. But to say that they can deter war or they will not allow nations to go to war, in our context that may also not be true,’’ he said.

Rawat made the comments at a seminar organized by the Center for Land Warfare Studies, a New Delhi-based think tank.

This story first appeared on Voice of America & is reposted here with permission.

News Report: India to Purchase Modern Observation Systems to Monitor Chinese Activities

Indo-China Border map (Click Image to Enlarge)

Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) purchase advanced long-range reconnaissance and observation systems (LORROS) to strengthen vigilance.

New Delhi (Sputnik) — Notwithstanding talks of peace and tranquility along the 2,167 mile-long border with China, India is leaving no stone unturned to ensure operational preparedness of its forces at the border. The latest in the series of purchases intended for the forces guarding the eastern border is the advanced long-range reconnaissance and observation systems (LORROS). A tender for an initial order of two LORROS has been issued.

The intended LORROS equipped with a thermal imager will be able to detect the human at a minimum range of 10 kilometers and vehicles at a minimum distance of 20 kilometers. "The LORROS must be a rapidly deployable compact surveillance system, modular in design, portable and be tripod and mast mounted," the tender document read. The system can be installed on the ground, on vehicles or on watch towers. The specification indicates the two LORROS will be deployed in the region of temperature up to minus 40 degree Celsius and height of 5,000 meters above mean sea level.

News Story: Myanmar security forces ready to counter possible terrorist attacks - presidential office

NAY PYI TAW, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar security forces are prepared to counter any possible terrorist attacks and will take effective actions on any law-breaching acts, said a press statement issued by the presidential office on Wednesday evening.

The statement came shortly after some ministers briefed President U Htin Kyaw the latest situation in conflict-torn northern Rakhine state's Maungtaw and Buthidaung areas where they made a field trip recently.

The ministers made proposals to President U Htin Kyaw on some future tasks to address the Rakhine issue.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: Phl, Malaysia, Indonesia eye joint border counter-terror patrols

By Alexis Romero 

MANILA, Philippines -  The Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia are eyeing a joint task force against security threats and may open their borders to each other to chase terrorists and other armed groups, President Duterte said. 

Duterte said he would meet with Indonesia President Joko Widodo and Malaysia President Najib Razak to thresh out the details of the border cooperation deal. 

“We have agreed that we will talk… the three of us… We are just waiting for the right timing,” the President told journalists in Davao City Saturday night. 

“In all probability, it will be like a joint task force. And I will open my borders to the Malaysian authorities and Indonesian authorities, and… they’ll be given access.

“If we are chasing someone and there is no more time, we can hit him. Even if he’s a Filipino, we can tell them ‘hit him’ or Indonesian here, we can hit him,” he added. 

Duterte said the meeting may be held near the Philippine shore, in Sabah or in Jakarta. 

Read the full story at PhilStar

News Report: Here to Stay - Standoff Ends, but China to Maintain Military Presence in Doklam

The high-altitude standoff between China and India on the Doklam Plateau may have come to an end, but the military buildup in the region will continue. The Chinese Defense Ministry announced on Thursday that they would beef up patrols and garrisons in Doklam to "safeguard national sovereignty and security."

The Doklam Plateau went from a remote, virtually-uninhabited mountain range along the disputed border of China and Bhutan to one of the most important geopolitical sites in the world overnight, when on June 16 Chinese soldiers and construction workers arrived to build a road through the plateau.

India rushed to defend their ally Bhutan's territorial claim, and years of tensions between the two most populous nations in the world suddenly exploded. Both sides talked tough, threatening and insulting one another for 10 tense weeks, even expressing a desire to go to war at times — and then on August 28, both sides pulled back with barely a comment.

News Report: India, China Agree to Pull Back Troops From Disputed Border Area

India and China have reached an agreement to end the most serious confrontation in decades between the Asian giants along a disputed border in the eastern Himalayas.

A brief statement by India’s foreign ministry on Monday said the decision follows diplomatic communications between the two countries. “On this basis, expeditious disengagement of border personnel at the face-off site at Doklam has been agreed to and is on-going,” the ministry said.

The foreign ministry in Beijing said Chinese soldiers will continue to patrol the area. According to Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, “China will continue to exercise sovereignty rights to protect territorial sovereignty in accordance with the rules of the historical boundary.”

The announcement comes days before Indian prime minister Narendra Modi is expected to travel to China for the summit of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) nations scheduled to be held next week. The two sides were under pressure to find a solution before that visit.

The standoff over the strategic Doklam plateau in the eastern Himalayas had dragged on for two and a half months, much longer than previous border flare-ups that have erupted along their 3,500 kilometer border, parts of which are still disputed.