India News - July 16-31, 2021

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INDIA NEWS

July 16-31, 2021 - Vol 1, Issue 26

That racism unites people more than it divides is heartening

Jammu twin drone attacks: Dawn of new trend in warfare By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain

I Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho

R

acism is as old as the history of human societies. Modern states have responded appropriately: legislatively and normatively and so to have sporting codes and institutions. However, we cannot wish it away. It will remain amongst us in one form or the other.

Racism in sports has risen by 67% in 2018, in professional sport – soccer, basketball, boxing, cricket, golf, motorsport and tennis. Remember how Jesse Owens and other athletes, faced similar experiences during the 1936 Olympics in Germany, held under Adolf Hitler’s “Aryan-race only” formula? Interestingly, contrary to popular belief that Hitler refused shaking hands, Jesse said it was actually the US President Franklin D. Roosevelt who refused to meet him. Imagine that? Recall Zinedine Zidane’s headbutting act after being racially slurred by Macro Materazzi during the France and Italy match in the world cup. An Algerian sculptor has even built a sculpture to immortalise the headbutting. Tiger Woods was also subjected to a racist jibe from a veteran golfer after his 1998 major win, and so did Magic Johnson in basketball. Racism again raised its ugly head in the aftermath of the Euro 2021 final between England and Italy in which England lost 3-2 in the nerve-wrecking penalty shootout after extra-time ended with a 1-1 score line. The pain of losing the final was in itself heartbreaking for England, but the barrage of racist slandering and attacks on the three key English players, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka was even more excruciating, drawing widespread condemnation. The trio had narrowly missed the penalty kick, costing England the cup. The upset English fans in a fit of rage not only resorted to vandalism and rioting outside the Wembley Stadium, but went on to target the three players with racist attacks, leaving them heartbroken, and the nation and sporting world in shock. While the loss was in itself brutal for the team, more so for the three players, being singled out on racial grounds was too much to bear for them, as well as for other English supporters. But, it was a touching sight to see the brave England captain Harry Kane embracing the players to console

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them, speaking volumes about his leadership. In the post-match madness, a large group of highly agitated England supporters reportedly defaced the murals of Rashford in his suburb of Withington, in south Manchester. Appalled by the racist attacks, hundreds gathered to throw their support behind the trio, repainting and restoring the defaced mural of Rashford. The gathered supporters also took the knee at the Stand Up to Racism demonstration. #SayNoToRacism and #BlackLivesMatter has been trending on the social media ever since, in solidarity with the players, which is a powerful symbol of racism uniting people more than dividing them. BBC reported that the 61-years old Karen Reismann, protested despite being fined £10,000 for breaching Covid rules during a National Health Service pay protest. Another NHS worker Felicite Sora, who recently moved to UK from France shared that the French player Kylian Mbappe was also subjected to racist attacks after he missed the penalty for France in the competition. She said that she joined the solidarity protest with her six-year old son to instil in him the need for standing up to such incidents of racism. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has condemned the racist attacks unequivocally and thrown his weight behind the team, especially the trio. The Greater Manchester Police is now reportedly investigating the incident of the defacing of Rashford’s mural. Ed Edward, the co-founder of Withington Walls said that the perpetrators need more education than any punishment. According to the BBC, the crowdfunding page has raised over £34,000 which will go toward painting more such murals, said Edward.

t needs no research to write about the long expected arrival of the phenomenon of delivery of explosive material on targets by small drones. The Jammubased Indian Air Force facility at the airport technical area was subjected to a drone-based IED attack in the early hours of June 27, causing a minor damage and an odd non-serious casualty (as reported). For a couple of years now, quad copters (rotary wing drones) of varying sizes have been crossing the LoC and the international border (IB) from Pakistan and PoK (Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir) into Punjab and J&K in an effort to exploit an emerging technology for effective use in hybrid warfare. It had started some years ago mainly in J&K, to photograph and map possible locations of manned positions on the Indian side, to facilitate infiltration. For the last five years or a little more, the focus shifted to terror groups attempting to use these airborne vehicles to transport a limited amount of warlike stores to the areas slightly in depth of the defensive canals in Punjab. With the counter infiltration posture becoming far more effective, the supply chain of these stores had been disrupted causing a negative turn in terrorist capability. The experience of terrorists and their sponsors in logistic supply by drones did not really overcome the challenge but a possible indulgence in explosive payloads using these was expected sooner than later. The employment of small size unarmed drones capable of delivering a payload of explosives up to a standoff distance is actually the terrorists’ dream. Ideally, they would like to indulge in heavier drones for greater terminal effect but for a beginning this would be considered suitable in changing the complexity and direction of hybrid war. It’s the message of capability which is important because that puts the regular forces on alert with an out of proportion quantum of effort, energy and deployment, Photo Courtesy: Navbharat Times

all of which are resource sapping. Neutralizing small size drones is difficult due to the limited time they are likely to be in the air. If launched over short distances from just across the border or LoC their low flight path and short time to target precludes any manual acquisition of targets, especially at night. The devices used at Jammu were probably crude technology demonstrators but they put all military and other sensitive deployment on notice, requiring round-the-clock surveillance (more of the manual kind) to prevent a repeat. Given the fact that these devices can be GPS-enabled and locations of important installations can all

The devices used at Jammu were probably crude technology demonstrators but they put all military and other sensitive deployment on notice, requiring round-theclock surveillance (more of the manual kind) to prevent a repeat. be surveyed by satellite, the accuracy with which targeting can be executed cannot be underestimated. The sensitive border region of North Punjab and Jammu has a plethora of such targets in the vicinity of the IB. The advantage which the terrorists enjoy of physically infiltrating and striking in a single night can also be applied using such drones. They can in fact be used to strike at multiple objectives on a broad front, divert attention and then use physical infiltration to exploit the resultant chaos. It may be recalled that on September 14, 2019 Yemen’s Houthi rebels attacked an Aramco oil refinery in Saudi Arabia’s

EDITORIAL

capital city, Riyadh. They used six bomb-laden drones along with 11 missiles to paralyze the working of the refinery. This is not something difficult to replicate in our context where oil installations at Jammu or Pathankot and various communication centres at a depth of no more than 10-20 km remain vulnerable. The incident we have witnessed saw only two drones in use but the entire phenomenon of drone swarms is not something unknown to us; it’s a methodology which could eventually be the adopted tactics. Swarms may offer large targets but carry a higher surety of some of the payloads reaching the target even if a few get shot down. More important for us is the counter measures that we propose. Passive defence is fine and will have to be resorted to through more air sentries and quick reaction teams (QRTs) trained to fire in a virtual air defence role. Hybrid wars in the subcontinent need not be fought only on the basis of absorbing Pakistan’s deceitful cooperation with terrorist elements. Rotary or fixed wing drones do not require very high technology. But before these become a nuisance for us and a source of unnecessary embarrassment the right offensive options must be clearly thought through. It’s not long before a few such drones will be launched to target our ammunition dumps, from within the precincts of the LoC or just outside it. Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, SM, VSM is a retired General of the Indian Army. He was the Military Secretary of the Indian Army and the Indian Army's 15 Army Corps Commander in Jammu and Kashmir. The article was originally published by News18 in India.

The message in all this here is that racism will raise its ugly head periodically involving players, officials, referees and spectators, therefore, what matters is how we respond. It is heartening to see in the latest instance how people have stood up against racism. This is how it must be addressed: unequivocally and strongly. Because racism won’t vanish, so what matters is how we respond as a society.

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