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India’s missing 54: The 54 ‘Abhinandans’ who never came home from Pakistan

Raju Das
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India’s missing 54: The 54 ‘Abhinandans’ who never came home from Pakistan

After a day-long wait, Indian Air Force pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was finally released by Pakistan on Friday evening. The IAF hero who was in the captivity of Pakistan for two days crossed the international border at Wagha, where thousands of people had gathered to welcome him home.

Indian Air Force pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was handed over to India by Pakistan today evening, just two days after he was captured by Pakistan military. He had ejected from the MiG-21 he was flying after it was shot by Pakistani ground forces and he had landed in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir after ejecting from the plane. To get back a fighter pilot, who had shot down an F-16 of Pakistan Air Force, in just two days of his capture is a remarkable diplomatic victory for India. Due to mounting international pressure, as almost all major countries have taken India’s side in the ongoing conflict, Pakistan had to follow the Geneva Convention to release the Prisoner of War so soon.

Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman is fortunate to be back in the country in just two days, but there are 54 Prisoners of War still missing in action, for 48 years. In the 1971 India-Pakistan war that had lead to the liberation of Bangladesh, 54 Indian soldiers, officers and fighter pilots were captured by Pakistan, and they are still ‘Missing In Action’. The Pakistan government had denied their presence in the country initially, but in 1989 then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had confirmed that the POWs were in fact in Pakistani custody. But later president Pervez Musharraf had back-tracked on the issue and denied the presence of the persons in their country.

The 54 personnel include 30 from Indian Army and 24 from Indian Air Force. They were captured during a battle on the western front. The list of missing persons was tabled in the Lok Sabha in 1979 by Samarendra Kundu, Minister of State of External Affairs, in reply to a question raised by Amarsingh Pathawa.


India had won the 1971 war, and it had taken 93,007 POWs on the Eastern Front, of which 72,795 were Pakistani soldiers. And all of them were sent back to Pakistan, as per Shimla Agreement and under the provisions of Geneva Convention on POWs. But surprisingly, the then Indira Gandhi government did not insist on repatriation of the 54 Indian prisoners in Pakistan, and they were never returned.

Shimla Agreement

Although Pakistan denies the existence of the 54 prisoners, there are shreds of evidence that they were in Pakistan.

In 1972, Time Magazine had published a photo a man behind bars in Pakistan, and the family of one of the Indian POW had immediately recognised him. In the same year, a local Pakistani paper had published another photo an infantry officer kept in a Pakistani jail.

In the book ‘Bhutto – Trial and Execution’, British historian Victoria Schoffield wrote that a Pakistani lawyer had been told that Indian prisoners of war “from the 1971 conflict” were kept in Kot Lakhpat prison in Lahore. They could be heard screaming from behind a wall, according to an eyewitness account from within the prison.

The Pakistani media also had reported the capture of the prisoners during the war. On 13th December 1971, the MiG-21 of Wing Commander Hersern Gill was shot down in Pakistan. The next day, a military spokesperson had claimed on radio that an ace Indian pilot had been captured. Gill’s plane was hit by ground fire, but he managed to glide down to a safe landing, after which he was captured. While Dhaka based English paper Sunday Observer had reported on 5th December 1971 that Pakistan had captured 5 pilots alive.

Pakistani POWs returning home after 1971 war

An American General, Chuck Yeager also wrote in his autobiography that he had personally interviewed Indian pilots captured by the Pakistanis. Americans were particularly interested in Indian pilots, because, at the height of cold war, Indians had attended training in Russia and were flying Soviet Russian planes.

In 2003, when a human rights group had gone to Kot Lakhpat Jail near Lahore to meet Sarabjit Singh lodged there, they had found that 11 prisoners from the 54 POWs were present there. They had also heard the prisoners shouting that they were the prisoners captured by Pakistan in 1971 war. The group had learned other prisoners were in some other jails and many of them had died.

Few Indians who had spent time in Pakistani jails under spying and other charges have also claimed to have met POWs from 1971 in various prisons.

According to The Diplomat, high-level conversations took place between the two countries over the prisoners, but officially Pakistan continued to deny the existence of them. The Diplomat says that although they saw the notes exchanged between the two sides, yet it is hard to know how seriously the Indians were actually pushing for release, as the minutes of the meetings were private.

The families of the victims were disappointed with the efforts of the Indian government. One sister of a captured pilot had said that the government simply did not bother to secure the release of their own men when hostilities ended.

48 years is a long time and it is probable that many of the captured persons are no longer alive. But with the success of getting wing commander Abhinandan Varthaman in just two days, one hopes that the Indian government will renew the efforts to get the 1971 prisoners back or convince Pakistan to release detail of the persons that may have died so that the grieving families can have closure.

All Advertisement Party – How Delhi schools are ridden with problems but Delhi govt paints a rosy picture

Dr. Nandini Sharma
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All Advertisement Party – How Delhi schools are ridden with problems but Delhi govt paints a rosy picture

Public school education in Delhi was expected to receive a huge fillip after the AAP Government stormed to power in 2015 with an unprecedented mandate. Their purported focus on education has a lot of noise about modernizing public schools, introducing ‘happiness’ in curricula and better learning outcomes.

However, they have carelessly squandered away a golden opportunity to fundamentally change the city’s human resource development scenario and serious doubts have been cast on the efficacy of their ill-implemented policies.

To begin with, there has been a huge façade of renovating 54 schools with modern amenities and infrastructure, the contract of which (worth Rs. 250 crore) was given to Delhi Tourism and Transport Development Corporation (DTTDC). Bright photographs of ‘model’ schools have been spread far and wide across social media highlighting them as the champions of AAP’s transformative policies. but according to a Financial Express report last year, the walls of recently completed schools have begun to display cracks.

The problem was highlighted on August 16, 2018 during a co-ordination committee meeting that was chaired by the director of Directorate of Education (DoE). According to the minutes of the meeting, “13 District Deputy Director Education (DDEs) have informed that there are numerous deficiencies in civil/electrical/plumbing/renovation work done by DTTDC in 54 pilot schools. In fact, big cracks have started appearing in some recently completed schools.”

The second big gap which the AAP Government has failed to address is the availability of teachers. Across the country, it is usually noticed that teachers are unwilling to work in rural areas compared to urban areas. This preference for urban spaces ideally should mean that Delhi have an excess of teachers but in reality is faced by a severe shortage, almost bordering on a crisis.

Of the 66,736 sanctioned posts, only 35,034 (52.5%) have been filled. Moreover, due to non-compliance of procedure, some 22,016 (33%) posts were filled through guest teachers who work on daily-wage contracts that must be renewed every year. Factoring in them together, there is still a shortage of 9,686 teachers (14.5%) which is unacceptable for any city, especially the national capital.

Furthermore, empirical evidence suggests that primary school teachers are often required to teach secondary level classes which has increased workload and stress for the teachers. Most regular posts are generally filled through promotions. But they have not happened since 2013 despite several reminders to the government.

Worst of all, the Delhi government decided to hire retired teachers to fill in the gaps during the last three months of the previous academic cycle by which time they could not compensate for the time lost. Even in supposedly posh areas like Jor Bagh, unavailability of physics teachers for class 12 has forced a parent to fill in and complete the syllabus.

The Delhi government should be thinking of far reaching solutions to address this appalling shortage by adopting methods recommended by experts like creating a ‘continuous substitute pool’ where in every region there is a small set of teachers who act as ‘backup’ and fill in wherever or whenever regular teachers are absent.

Adding to teacher shortage is a far simpler yet persistent problem of ‘textbooks’ shortage. In most cases, textbooks reach the children. According to two separate surveys conducted by District Information System for Education (DISE) and Delhi RTE forum respectively revealed that 27% of schools did not receive textbooks in 2013-14 and In the 2016-’17 academic year, children in Delhi’s government schools received their textbooks in phases, over months – some reaching them six to nine months into the session. For example, textbooks for mathematics and science reached schools in East and North East Delhi only by September.

This unconscionable delay is often compounded by the poor quality of printing and binding of textbooks and they do not meet norms described in procurement guidelines. This creates additional hurdles for children to access knowledge. Sometimes, textbooks have incomplete and error-riddled content (for example, textbooks with several blank pages or missing pages, repetition of chapters, misspelled words).

These delays, which repeat every year, cannot be explained by bureaucratic and logistic inefficiencies alone. The situation is clearly one of indifference and possibly, neglect and disregard for the rights of children. Despite increased allocations to education, the AAP government has failed to allocate funds where they are absolutely required – There has been virtually no change in the amount allocated for textbooks – around Rs 100 crore – since 2013.

The natural consequence of the aforementioned issues is the adverse impact on learning outcomes of the children. Despite tall claims of bettering private schools, the government school children have severely fallen behind in English learning which has become central to our education system over the years. In English Elective (class 12), the difference in average marks between private and govt. schools is a whopping 67.42% and in English Core (class 12), the difference in performance is 29.42%. In mathematics it was 21.16% and in Hindi core the gap was 13.92%.

The AAP Government however has been busy quoting pass percentages at 12th to substantiate its claims. While the pass rates for government schools in Delhi have been quite similar to those of private schools, the metric itself is quite meaningless. Most government schools in Delhi don’t offer the core and critical subjects like Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Biology in which students are more likely to under-perform or in some instances, fail thereby reducing the pass rates of private schools. Of the 866 senior secondary government schools in the city, only 270 (31.17%) offer science as a stream in Class 11 and 12. In sharp contrast, all the 866 institutions offer Arts (Humanities) as a stream.

The data points covered above show that ‘well-painted’ schools cannot be the only answer to a systemic issue. It is clear as day that whether it is schools or data about schools, the AAP government has shown a tendency of just ‘painting’ a pretty picture and brushing all the structural problems under the carpet. Such a lackadaisical and inherently deceitful attitude sugar-coated through well-painted schools and a well-oiled online propaganda machinery may yield temporary political results and brownie points at award functions, while sacrificing the future of Delhi at the same time.

In this context, let me take the opportunity to give some friendly advice and remind the AAP Government of Abraham Lincoln’s sharpest political message which goes, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

(Author is an elected member and Chairman of the Education Committee of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation)

Pakistan’s foreign minister admits in BBC interview that their government is in contact with Jaish-e-Mohammad leadership

OpIndia Staff
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Pakistan’s foreign minister admits in BBC interview that their government is in contact with Jaish-e-Mohammad leadership

In a shocking goof up, Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has admitted on record that the Pakistani government is in contact with the JeM leadership. He even quickly attempted to salvage the situation by hastening to tell that they don’t know JeM leadership directly, but they know people who are connected with them.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lxafFJLrqI?start=125]

In an interview that was shared by BBC yesterday, Shah Mehmood Qureshi is seen profusely defending the Jaish-e-Mohammad. When the interviewer says that JeM has claimed responsibility for the Pulwama attack that killed 40 Indian soldiers, Qureshi flatly denies it. He says that JeM has not claimed the responsibility and it is false.

When the interviewer reminds him that JeM, a Pakistan based terrorist group has carried out an attack on Indian territory, Qureshi says that “No, they have not.” The interviewer goes ahead to ask that if he (Qureshi) is denying that JeM is operating on Pakistani soil. Mehmood, at this point, says,” The leadership, when contacted, says they have not”.

At this point, the interviewer presses him, “Contacted by who sir?” Qureshi seems to have realised his mistake and fumbles for words. He then say , the people over here say no, they deny. The interviewer presses on, asking who exactly have contacted the JeM leadership. Qureshi, scrambling to cover up, says there are people who are known to them and there is a lot of confusion over JeM being involved in the Pulwama attack.


Earlier this week, Qureshi had admitted in an interview by CNN that JeM chief Masood Azhar is in Pakistan and he is very unwell, to the extent that he cannot move out of his house.

The government of Pakistan has long been harbouring, aiding and even shielding globally known terrorist on their soil. The recent revelations only strengthen that fact. Showing a remarkable level of impunity, they also have the guts to claim before the world that they are a victim of terrorism.

Also read: 14 IAF planes entered Pakistan, four of them bombed Masood Azhar’s camp, says Pakistan Rail Minister

The extent to which Pakistan can go to shield terrorists is evident from the fact that in retaliation to Indian Air Force jets bombing a JeM run training camp, Pakistan had sent F16s over the Indian sky to target our military installations.

Pakistani civil servant Danyal Gilani spreads hilarious fake news, gets caught

OpIndia Staff
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Pakistani civil servant Danyal Gilani spreads hilarious fake news, gets caught

Parody nation Pakistan, which is hell-bent on proving that they have a moral victory after their air force attacked Indian military installations after India destroyed JeM terror camps in Pakistan, has taken to spreading fake news regarding their bravado. Pakistani civil servant, Danyal Gilani, last night took to Twitter to inform everyone that Lockheed Martin, the company that manufactured the F16 which Pakistani Army flew inside Indian air space, is now planning to file a lawsuit against India.

Danyal Gilani’s tweet spreading fake news, now deleted.

Danyal Gilani is David Coleman Headley’s half brother. Headley is one of the co-conspirators of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.

In his tweet, Gilani shared a news link from a dubious website ‘wnobserver’, which is privately registered in the US, but most of the authors in the team consist of bloggers and fiction authors based in Pakistan, which claims that the F-16 manufacturer will file a lawsuit against India’s ‘false claims’. The article attributes the quote to ‘Lockheed Martin’ which has “expressed its annoyance over the factually incorrect statement by Indian Foreign Office spokesperson regarding alleged shooting down Pakistan’s F-16 by IAF on February 27, 2019.”

The article claims that the US company finds India’s claims of shooting down F16 ‘outrageous’ and ‘disrespect to the sophistication and repute of this Avionics excellence.’ Pakistan has still maintained that their F16 is intact, despite Indian armed forces displaying parts of the wreckage of the aircraft. “The company also claims that since all F-16s on Pakistani inventory are well counted for hence it is obvious that the story by India is concocted for political gains by incumbent government at the cost of F-16s reputation globally,” the article attributes to Lockheed Martin.

Hence, now that India has made the ‘false claim’ of having shot down the F16, the company will file a lawsuit.

However, Lockheed Martin responded to Gilani and stated clearly in as many words that the company has made no such statement.


That the article was shared as factual and not satire shows that Pakistan would rather believe fake news showing them in a good light rather than accepting that they lost an aircraft, and perhaps a pilot too, who has not been acknowledged by them. Despite ample evidence of F16 being downed by a MiG 21, Gilani, like many others, refuses to accept they lost an aircraft, and perhaps a pilot.

Pakistanis are having a hard time believing that Indian Air Force actually destroyed the terror camps thriving on their soils. When Air Marshal C Hari Kumar retired on February 28, out of turn after 39 years of illustrious service, he was propagated in Pakistani media as if he was ‘sacked’ for failing Indian side. Meanwhile, panic-stricken Pakistan keeps its airspace shut till March 4, four airports partially opened but airlines avoid operations

Three evidences that Pakistan used F-16 jets to attack India, and one of them was shot down

OpIndia Staff
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Three evidences that Pakistan used F-16 jets to attack India, and one of them was shot down

Pakistan continues to deny that one F-16 was shot down by Indian Air Force yesterday when they tried to target Indian military bases with Laser-Guided bombs, and even say that F-16 jets were not even used in the operation. But now more evidences are coming to suggest that not only F-16 jets were used, but one them had gone down yesterday.

When the photos of crashed jets were published on Wednesday, it was already mentioned that they show the wreckage of two jets. Due to this, initially Pakistan had claimed that they had shot down two Indian fighter jets, and two Indian Air Force pilots were captured by them. But later India had confirmed that only one plane, a MiG-21 Bison, was lost by India, and one pilot was in Pakistan’s custody. This had meant the wreckage of the other plane had to be from a Pakistani jet, which was shot by Indian fighter jets.

After analysing the photographs, Indian Air Force had confirmed today that one of the photographs show parts of an F-16 jet. A part of wreckage matches with the engine of the F-16 jet, and it does not match with any part of MiG-21, IAF experts had affirmed.

After that, Indian security forces had found a part of a missile in India which is carried by F-16 jets. The wreckage came from a missile fired by Pakistani Air Force jets yesterday, and one part of had the marking AIM-120C. This marking means that it is an Amraam missile, which is not used by India, but used by Pakistani Air Force on its F-16 jets.

Some Pakistanis had tried to prove that actually this missile was sold to Taiwan, based on a batch number on the wreckage which is common for a particular batch of production. It was quickly pointed out that missile of the same batch number was sold to Pakistan also.

Social media uses in Pakistan had uploaded videos of the wreckage of the jets, and in one of the videos, we have noticed another evidence that suggests that some of the wreckage come from an F-16 fighter jet.

In this video, we can see that the Pakistani military is loading some parts from the crashed planes on a truck. They are seen loading a large cylindrical tank on the truck. After analysing, we have found that this component looks like a drop tank attached to F-16 jets.

Drop tanks are external fuel tanks used in fighter planes, which can be jettisoned after the fuel in them is used.

F-16 and MiG-21 both carry drop tanks, but the tanks used by MiG-21 are difference in size and shape. They are thinner, and have much more pointed and elongated ends. While the drop tanks of F-16 are bigger in diameter, and the tank seen in the video is similar in size and shape of an F-16 drop tank.

F-16 Drop tank
MiG-21 drop tank

The images above show that the tank which was loaded on the truck does not match with the MiG-21, and the jet has no other part that looks like this. On the other,

These evidences make it clear that F-16 jets were used by Pakistan in their attempt to attack Indian military bases, and one F-16 fighter jet was shot down by Indian jets while chasing them away from Indian airspace.

Pakistan to lodge complaint against India at UN for ‘serious environmental damage’ by airstrikes, dubs it ‘Eco-terrorism’

OpIndia Staff
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Pakistan to lodge complaint against India at UN for ‘serious environmental damage’ by airstrikes, dubs it ‘Eco-terrorism’

Pakistan intends to lodge a complaint at the United Nations against India for ‘eco-terrorism’, a government minister said on Friday according to Reuters.

“What happened over there is environmental terrorism,” Pakistan’s Climate Change Minister Malik Amin Aslam told Reuters, referring to Indian airstrikes on terrorist camps within Pakistani territory. “There has been serious environmental damage.” He also claimed that Indian jets had bombed a “forest reserve”. Pakistan had claimed that bombing by Indian Air Force jets had missed the targets and didn’t hit any terrorist camp. Instead, the bombs had fallen on a forest area nearby, which had damaged some trees and created craters on the ground, they had said.

But Pakistan seems to be confused about the eco-terrorism, as it does not imply damaging environment as they are implying.

According to Merriam-Webster, “Eco‑terrorism” has two definitions. It is an act of “sabotage intended to hinder activities that are considered damaging to the environment” or “political terrorism intended to damage an enemy’s natural environment”. Basically, ‘eco-terrorism’ means the use of violence or physical force to protect the environment. A lot of activities undertaken by Greenpeace can be termed as eco‑terrorism, for example. Environment activists often physically prevent economic activities for protecting the environment, and they have been charged with eco‑terrorism and affected organisations have filed lawsuits against such groups in various countries.

Therefore, the act of India can’t be termed as eco‑terrorism. India didn’t bomb the areas inside Pakistan to stop damage to the environment, it was done to destroy terror camps operating in Pakistan. In the process, few trees may have got affected as collateral damage, but that can’t be called eco‑terrorism as that will be the wrong use of the term.

The term “Environmental Terrorism”, on the other hand, does mean harming the environment. But India didn’t target the trees willingly, only terror camps were targeted, and few trees may have got damaged in the process. Whatever damage suffered by the environment was clearly accidental and not intentional. Moreover, whether the alleged destruction of 15 pine trees will be considered as a terrorist act by the UN will have to be seen.

Pakistan is known to harbour terrorism, various terror groups operating from the country regularly conduct terrorist activities in India and other countries. Terror leaders like Maulana Masood Azhar and Hafiz Muhammad Saeed openly roam in Pakistan. Such a terror-state is accusing India of eco-terrorism, that too for alleged destruction of few trees.

After threatening India with nuclear weapons for years, approaching the U.N. over ‘ecoterrorism’ appears to be another instance where the Pakistanis have failed greatly to live up to their incredible boasts.

Pakistan has been forced to swallow a lot of bitter pills lately. First, India entered its territory with nuclear-capable jets to strike at terrorist camps within their territory. Then, it was isolated at the international scene even as their ‘all-weather friend’ emphasized restraint. Next, the best aircraft in the Pakistani air force, the F16, was brought down by an ancient Indian MiG-21. Ultimately, it was forced to release Indian Wing Commander Abhinandan unconditionally due to international pressure even as they hoped to negotiate some sort of a deal with India using him as a hostage.

And if all of that wasn’t enough, Pakistan was forced to boycott the Council of Foreign Ministers meeting at the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) conference after its objection to the organization’s invite to India was ignored by the rest of the members even though they were one of its founding members.

Under such circumstances, it is only natural that the Pakistan government’s actions appear rather bewildering. It is also perplexing that the Pakistanis believe accusing India of ‘eco‑terrorism’ is more reasonable than acting against the terrorists it has been harbouring.

Portal run by former SFI worker publishes fake news about Air Marshal C Hari Kumar, DailyHunt spreads it to millions

OpIndia Staff
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Portal run by former SFI worker publishes fake news about Air Marshal C Hari Kumar, DailyHunt spreads it to millions

A portal run by a former Students Federation of India (SFI), the student’s wing of Sitaram Yechury-led Communist Party of India (Marxist), district secretary today morning shared fake news regarding the retirement of Air Marshal Chandrashekharan Hari Kumar. At 7:55 am, a portal called ‘BigNews’ published the fake news, perhaps one of the first propagators of this fake news, that India has ‘removed’ Air Marshal Hari Kumar after ‘Pakistan shoot down jets’. This was then picked up by the news aggregator app, DailyHunt, which pushed it to millions of users.

‘BigNews’ by former SFI worker writes fake news, DailyHunt spreads it to millions of users

We had earlier reported that Air Marshal Hari Kumar retired out of turn yesterday on February 28 after 39 illustrious years in service. The news of his retirement was used by Pakistanis to propagate that he was ‘sacked’ for his ‘failure to handle’ the current situation at the border. ‘Big News’ report mentions further that the decision (to sack him) ‘came after Pakistan’s surprise response against Indian aggression on Wednesday when two IAF fighter jets were shot down and a pilot was arrested for violating airspace.’ This again is fake news since it was Pakistan, not India which was showing aggression by targeting India’s military installations in retaliation to IAF jets destroying Jaish-e-Mohammad terror camps in Pakistan. Incidentally, it was Air Marshal Hari Kumar who played the pivotal role in the air strikes India had carried out on Pakistan-based terror organisations. Hence, stating that it was Pakistan’s ‘surprise response’ against ‘India’s aggression’ is also factually incorrect.

The news spread by BigNews, perhaps one of the initial reports to state that he was ‘sacked for his failure’ was quickly picked up by Pakistani media to propagate the same.

To know more about who is behind the anti-India propaganda, OpIndia decided to investigate the website.

WhoIs details of the website registered.

BigNewsLive is registered by one Shebeer KI, who is based in Kerala. Shebeer KI is a former district secretary of SFI and also won Calicut University Union elections. From his Facebook posts, he still appears active in politics.

Shebeer KI with Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan

In one picture he is spotted with Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, whom he refers to as ‘comrade’.

Shebeer KI with CPI(M)’s Kodiyeri Balakrishnan

In another picture he is with CPI(M) Kerala General Secretary, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan who on Wednesday had said that the air strikes carried out by Indian Air Force on terror camps based in Pakistan were a ‘way to sabotage polls’.

In light of the above, one wonders why would a portal, run by a website whose owner is associated with SFI/CPI(M)/LDF, directly or indirectly, spread an anti-India fake news.

Update: Following our report, the article has now been deleted from BigNewsLive website. DailyHunt has also removed the same from their website.

Shekhar Gupta manages to use even Wing Commander Abhnandan’s return to deride India with a half-truth

OpIndia Staff
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Shekhar Gupta manages to use even Wing Commander Abhnandan’s return to deride India with a half-truth

While the country is celebrating Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman’s homecoming, editor of the Print and the President of the Editor’s Guild of India, Shekhar Gupta has displayed shocking ignorance about the protocols to be followed on repatriation of people from foreign countries.

In a tweet posted by him, Gupta scoffed at how even the Wing Commander, who is being returned by Pakistan had to go through customs. However, Gupta here fails to realise that there are certain protocols that are put in place which have to be followed religiously. Either Gupta is unaware of the existence of those protocols or he is simply using this opportunity to cast the Indian government in bad light.


One of the Twitter users highlighted how even the astronauts who visited Moon for the first time-Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin had to go through the customs on their return. Passing customs is a general practice widely followed in all the countries. However, Gupta, known for his critical views against the Modi government, didn’t waste any time in taking to Twitter to ridicule the government.


Earlier, the liberals hailed Pakistan PM Imran Khan for being a ‘Statesman’ to order the release of Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who was held captive in Pakistan after he landed in the PoK, ejecting from his crashing Mig-21 Bison aircraft that was hit by a PAF jet. India’s diplomatic prowess and its ability to mount insurmountable pressure on Pakistan which resulted in the release of Wing Commander was totally lost on the likes of Gupta and his ilk. Now, Gupta’s derision of established government procedures only exposes his deep hatred for the Modi government.

Panic-stricken Pakistan keeps its airspace shut till March 4, four airports partially opened but airlines avoid operations

OpIndia Staff
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Panic-stricken Pakistan keeps its airspace shut till March 4, four airports partially opened but airlines avoid operations

Panic-stricken Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Friday said in a fresh NOTAM (A Notice to Airmen) that the country’s airspace will be closed till March 4. However, exceptions have been made for to and fro operations from four international airports, namely, Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar, and Islamabad which would operate with restrictions.


“Flight operations only to/from Karachi international, Peshawar international, Quetta international and Islamabad international airports with restricted entry/exit as follows will be available,” said the fresh circular.

Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had on Friday morning said that it will soon announce its decision regarding the restoration of Pakistan’s airspace. The authority tweeted that the decision will be made shortly upon the expiry of existing NOTAM.


Although reports say that Pakistan has partially reopened flight operations from few of the airports, according to live flight tracking website Flightradar24, no civilian aircraft has operated in the country today. The airspace looks completely empty on the website, and data for the four airports show that no flights landed or took off today. It seems that the airlines have decided to keep away from Pakistan for the time being, even if authorities have allowed limited operations in four airports.

Earlier, Pakistan had shut down all of its airports and airspace, after India gallantly retaliated to the audacious infringement by Pakistan’s airforce into Indian airspace in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch and Nowshera sectors. Pakistan had lost one of its fighter jets, F16 in the clash, while one Indian MiG-21 jet was also lost and the pilot was captured by the Pakistani military.

Pakistan, fearing escalation, immediately stopped its domestic and international flight operations from Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, Sialkot and Islamabad airports. The International flights that transit between Indian and Pakistani airspace had also been affected. Due to the closure of Pakistani airspace, the international flights that usually fly over the nations had to be rerouted, most them flying southwards over Arabian sea, while some of them went north of Pakistan over China.

Though closing of Pakistan’s airspace has disrupted major routes between Europe and South East Asia and Middle-east, what might leave Pakistan flustered are reports that confirm, China, the all-weather ally of Pakistan, has decided to cancel all flights to and from Pakistan and rerouted its international aircraft flying over the Pakistani airspace. On Wednesday when the airspace was shut down, several flights scheduled to fly over Pakistan had either returned to origin station or diverted to avoid Pakistani airspace. After that, normal flight operations going on bypassing Pakistan.

China has allowed foreign airlines to use its airspace as an alternate route. Civilian Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) came out with the contingency plan for both domestic and foreign airlines to use Chinese air space to reroute flights that use the Pakistani airspace.

Lately, it also confirmed that the closure of Pakistani airspace has affected almost 400 flights and that the greatest impact of the airspace shutdown has been felt by Iran.

The rising tension between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack, followed by firstly India’s hard-core retaliation in the form of an ariel airstrike then its befitting reply to the infringement by Pakistan army into Indian airspace has left Pakistan fragmentized and jittery. Pakistan has been desperately trying to get India to de-escalate, but India has been absolutely firm, that this time either Pakistan takes reliable steps to wash off terrorism breeding on its soil or payback for every drop of blood India has lost fighting terrorism.

Pakistan forced to boycott OIC event after member nations ignore its objections over invitation to India

OpIndia Staff
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Pakistan forced to boycott OIC event after member nations ignore its objections over invitation to India

While India’s Minister of External Affairs is the guest of honour at the inaugural plenary of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) conference at Abu Dhabi, UAE, the Foreign Minister of Pakistan has been forced into not attending the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers.

It has issued a statement where it has expressed its great displeasure towards India’s attendance at the event.

In its statement, Pakistan said, “India is a country with unresolved disputes with Pakistan, a founding member of OIC. India is also responsible for horrendous human rights violations of people of Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir. India has consistently rejected OIC resolution on the Jammu & Kashmir dispute, adopted at the OIC Foreign Ministers and Summit levels. Only last year, India rejected the OIC resolutions on Jammu & Kashmir by stating that “India dismisses it with the contempt it deserves.”

Expressing its objections on India’s attendance of the event, the statement said that India has “No legal or moral grounds to be present at the meeting.” “Pakistan’s strong objections in this regard have been clearly communicated,” it added.

It appears other members of the OIC do not care much about Pakistan’s objections on the matter. “Aggression has been done against a founding member of the OIC,” Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had said on Tuesday while asserting that Pakistan has “expressed reservations” about the invitation to India.

Despite the objections raised by Pakistan, India did attend the conference today where External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj targeted Pakistan over its support to terrorists. She urged the OIC to urge states indulging in Terror activities to dismantle their networks, and stop financing and harboring elements that pose a grave security threat for the region.

Pakistan’s objection being denied at the OIC and India getting a chance to address the member nations is not only symbolic of Pakistan’s continued geopolitical isolation but is also a glimpse of how India’s increasing importance in the world map has made it stand tall globally.


It appears that the international pressure Narendra Modi has built on Pakistan through diplomacy is starting to yield results. After it was forced to return Wing Commander Abhinandan unconditionally, Pakistan has been successfully isolated even in an international organization it is a founding member of.

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