Asia
North Korea fires 2 suspected missiles in 6th launch in 2022
North Korea on Thursday fired two suspected ballistic missiles into the sea in its sixth round of weapons launches this month, South Korea’s military said.
Experts say North Korea’s unusually fast pace in testing activity underscores an intent to pressure the Biden administration over long-stalled negotiations aimed at exchanging a release of crippling U.S.-led sanctions against the North and the North’s denuclearization steps.
The renewed pressure comes as the pandemic further shakes the North’s economy, which was already battered by crippling U.S.-led sanctions over its nuclear weapons program and decades of mismanagement by its own government.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the weapons, which were likely short-range, were launched five minutes apart from the eastern coastal town of Hamhung and flew 190 kilometers (118 miles) on an apogee of 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) before landing at sea.
Read: US hits NKorean officials with sanctions after missile test
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who described North Korea’s repeated missile firings as “extremely regrettable,” but said there has so far been no reports of damage to vessel and aircraft around the Japanese coast.
Senior South Korean security and military officials gathered for an emergency National Security Council meeting where they expressed strong regret over the North’s continuing launches and urged Pyongyang to recommit to dialogue, Seoul’s presidential office said.
The North also last week issued a veiled threat to resume the testing of nuclear explosives and long-range missiles targeting the American homeland, which leader Kim Jong Un suspended in 2018 while initiating diplomacy with the United States.
Kim’s high-stakes summitry with then-President Donald Trump derailed in 2019 after the Americans rejected North Korea’s demands for major sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities.
Some experts say North Korea could dramatically escalate weapons demonstrations after the Winter Olympics, which begin Feb. 4 in China, the North’s main ally and economic lifeline.
They say Pyongyang’s leadership likely feels it could use a dramatic provocation to move the needle with the Biden administration, which has been preoccupied with bigger adversaries including China and Russia.
The Biden administration has offered open-ended talks but showed no willingness to ease sanctions unless Kim takes real steps to abandon the nuclear weapons and missiles he sees as his strongest guarantee of survival.
The North has been ramping up its testing activity since last fall, demonstrating various missiles and delivery systems apparently designed to overwhelm missile defense systems in the region.
Experts say Kim is trying to apply more pressure on rivals Washington and Seoul to accept it as a nuclear power in hopes of winning relief from economic sanctions and convert the diplomacy with Washington into mutual arms-reduction negotiations.
Thursday’s launch came two days after South Korea’s military detected the North flight-testing two suspected cruise missile at an unspecified inland area.
Read: N. Korea fires 2 suspected missiles in 4th launch this year
North Korea opened 2022 with a pair of test-firings of a purported hypersonic missile, which Kim described as an asset that would remarkably bolster his nuclear “war deterrent.”
The North also this month test-fired two different types of short-range ballistic missiles it has developed since 2019 that are designed to be maneuverable and fly at low altitudes, which experts say potentially improve their chances of evading and defeating missile defense systems.
In a ruling party meeting attended by Kim last week, the North accused the Biden administration of hostility and threats and said it will consider “all temporally-suspended activities” it had paused during its diplomacy with the Trump administration, in an apparent threat to resume testing of nuclear explosives and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry had earlier warned of “stronger and certain reaction” after the Biden administration imposed fresh sanctions following the North’s second hypersonic test on Jan. 11.
The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on five North Koreans over their roles in obtaining equipment and technology for the country’s missile programs, while the State Department ordered sanctions against another North Korean, a Russian man and a Russian company for their broader support of North Korea’s weapons activities.
However, Washington’s efforts to seek new U.N. Security Council sanctions against the five North Koreans sanctioned by the Treasury Department were blocked last week by China and Russia, which have called for the U.N. to end key sanctions against the North, citing its economic difficulties.
“Despite efforts to strengthen sanctions, Washington’s responses to North Korean launches this month are nowhere near its reaction to Pyongyang’s provocations in 2017,” when the North staged an unusually provocative run in nuclear and ICBM tests, said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
“U.S. policy has become more measured and coordinated but is still inadequate for changing North Korean behavior. The Biden administration has other priorities, ranging from pandemic recovery at home to confronting Russia over Ukraine, Iran regarding its nuclear program, and China across the board,” he said.
Despite international concerns over its weapons activity, North Korea will still get to chair a U.N. disarmament forum during a one-month presidency between May 30 to June 24, according to a U.N. statement.
The U.N. Conference on Disarmament, which has 65 member states and focuses on nuclear disarmament issues, says the conference’s presidency rotates among member states.
U.N. Watch, a Geneva-based activist group, called for the U.S. and European ambassadors to walk out of the conference during North Korea’s presidency, saying that the country threatens to attack other U.N. member states with missiles and commits atrocities against its own people.
Police: Fire, clash at nightclub kill 19 people in Indonesia
A nightclub in Indonesia’s West Papua province burned after two community groups clashed inside the building and 19 people were killed, officials said Tuesday.
Members of the two groups attacked each other with machetes, arrows and Molotov cocktails, National Police spokesperson Ahmad Ramadhan said at a news conference.
One of the dead was a member of the groups that clashed, and 18 bodies were found after the fire Monday night at the club in Sorong city.
The clash Monday at the nightclub followed a clash Saturday night between the same groups because of a misunderstanding, city police Chief Ary Nyoto Setiawan said.
“We called them and mediated them but they continued the clash until late night,” Setiawan said.
He said police evacuated visitors of the nightclub during the clash, but firefighters later found 18 bodies in one of the rooms inside the building.
Police are still investigating what caused the clash and whether the fire was set or was accidental.
First woman judge sworn into Pakistan’s Supreme Court
Pakistan has a woman on its highest court for the first time.
Ayesha Malik’s swearing-in on Monday as a justice on Pakistan’s Supreme Court was a landmark moment for the Islamic nation where women often struggle to get justice — especially in cases involving sexual assault.
Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmad administered Malik’s oath-taking in Islamabad. The event had been a controversial development for Pakistan’s male-dominated judicial system. Malik’s appointment, confirmed last week by Pakistani President Arif Alvi, silenced some of her critics who opposed her promotion on technical grounds.
Congratulations flowed from the top, with Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeting of Malik, 55, “I wish her all the best.”
Pakistani Sen. Sherry Rehman shared a photo of Malik’s the oath-taking on Twitter. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi also tweeted, saying Malik’s swearing in was “a great day for Pakistan.”
The process to elevate Malik from the Punjab provincial high court, which she joined in 2012, had been unusually contentious. A nine-member judicial commission recommends judges for promotion. Five members of the commission supported Malik’s appointment, while the other four opposed it.
Malik’s allies hope her appointment clears the way for more promotions of women in Pakistan’s courts.
Women in Pakistan struggle to get justice - especially in cases involving sexual assault. Authorities and society cast doubt on the victims in many cases.
Malik previously worked at the Lahore High Court, the second highest court in judicial system.
According to the Supreme Court’s web site, Malik received her early education from schools in Paris and New York, and later earned her law degree from Harvard Law School, where she was named a London H. Gammon Fellow for outstanding merit.
Missing World War II aircraft found in India after 77 years
A missing World War II plane has been identified in India’s remote Himalayas nearly 80 years after it crashed with no survivors, following a search in a treacherous high-altitude area, reported Khaleej Times.
The C-46 transport aircraft was carrying 13 people from Kunming in southern China when it disappeared in stormy weather over a mountainous stretch of Arunachal Pradesh state in the first week of 1945.
“This aircraft was never heard from again. It simply disappeared,” said Clayton Kuhles, a US adventurer who led the mission after a request from the son of one of those on board the doomed flight.
The expedition saw Kuhles and a team of guides from the local Lisu ethnic group ford chest-deep rivers and camp in freezing temperatures at high altitudes.
Also read: Why investors fleeing Chinese property market see India as an opportunity
It was a potentially lethal mission: In 2018 three Lisu hunters had died of hypothermia in the same area when they were caught in an unseasonal September snowstorm, Kuhles said, while two others “barely escaped alive”.
“My Lisu guides and porters were very uneasy about our high camp location,” he added.
But the team finally located the plane on a snow-clad mountain top last month, where they were able to identify the wreckage by the tail number.
There were no human remains in what was left of the craft.
Kuhles was tasked with conducting the search by Bill Scherer, whose officer father was aboard the plane when it crashed.
“All I can say is that I am overjoyed, just knowing where he is. It is sad but joyous,” Scherer told AFP by email from New York.
Also read: India test-fires latest version of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile
“I grew up without a father. All I can think of is my poor mother, getting a telegram and finding out her husband is missing and she is left with me, a 13-month-old baby boy.”
Hundreds of US military planes went missing around the theatre of operations in India, China and Myanmar during World War II.
While hostile fire from Japanese forces did account for some aircraft losses, Kuhles said the majority are believed to have been brought down by ice damage, hurricane-force winds and other severe weather conditions.
Why investors fleeing Chinese property market see India as an opportunity
Investors have been taking refuge from the Chinese real estate debt crisis in pockets of the broader Asian credit market, and cite India among opportunities that are relatively insulated from the historic turmoil, reported Business Standard.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has recently adopted a positive stance on Asia high-yield bonds. Bank of New York Mellon Corp. data indicate South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, India, Malaysia and Japan all recorded capital inflows into corporate debt in the three months through Jan. 18, while China experienced outflows.
Rising inflation means there have still been losses for broader Asian bonds-- as there have been in many parts of credit markets globally -- but they’ve been much milder. Dollar notes of all ratings from Chinese issuers have lost about 3.7% in 2022 even after a rally in recent days for property developer securities sparked by policy support.
That compares with just 1.5% for Indian borrowers, 0.8% for South Korean firms and 0.7% for Philippine credits, according to a Bloomberg index.
Also read: India is world's top exporter of cucumber and gherkins
“Investors have been hiding in Indian investment-grade and high-yield credit, and other parts of Asia outside of China, as a means to reduce their exposure to China property,” said Wai Mei Leong, a portfolio manager at Eastspring Investments.
One recent example of a money manager to have cut exposure to Chinese bonds is BDO Capital & Investment Corp., which sold its holdings of such securities, President Eduardo Francisco said last week.
Both Goldman and CreditSights consider Indian companies attractive. The U.S. bank recommends high-yield renewables, while the latter considers financial firms to be best shielded from the troubles in the world’s second-largest economy.
Still, there are plenty of risks for the broader Asian credit market. Because of demand from investors seeking to diversify, CreditSights said valuations for Asian credit outside of China have already been driven tighter. That means many South and Southeast Asian names warrant only a market perform rating, despite good fundamentals, it said.
Having taken a beating last year and for the first couple weeks of 2022, Chinese property dollar bonds have rallied in recent sessions thanks to a string of policy steps to ease restrictions on the real estate industry and broader monetary stimulus. But the outlook is highly uncertain, with more defaults expected, according to Goldman.
If the failures don’t get out of control, that may sustain interest in other pockets of the Asian market, but any prolonged crisis would cause an economic slowdown that would have ripple effects across Asia. Chinese debt constitutes an outsized share in regional indexes. Investors could decide to pull out entirely.
Also read: India test-fires latest version of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile
Facing requests for redemptions, bond fund managers “have to sell a bit of everything,” said Jean-Louis Nakamura, chief investment officer for Lombard Odier in Asia Pacific. “I’m afraid that this kind of indirect weakening of the Asia credit market will continue for some time.”
But for now the Asian credits outside China are offering lower volatility and some country-specific shifts have encouraged investors.
When it comes to tapping global financial markets, India trails economies like Brazil and South Africa, not least because the country’s central bank has historically been wary of hot money inflows. Yet the past few weeks have seen a surge of dollar-denominated issuance, with Reliance Industries raising $4 billion earlier this year in India’s biggest-ever foreign currency bond deal.
There’s also been an increase in green- and sustainability-bond sales, bringing it more in line with the trend elsewhere.
“We quite like the India space because there is a lot of ESG bond supply coming from those companies and they aren’t quite expensive compared with other Asian peers,” said Paula Chan, a senior portfolio manager at Manulife Investment Management (Hong Kong) Ltd. “Supply from there also offers quite a good diversification
India is world's top exporter of cucumber and gherkins
India has emerged as the largest exporter of gherkins in the world with outbound shipments worth $114 million from April-October 2021 compared to $200 million of exports in full FY21, reported The Economic Times.
"India has exported cucumber and gherkins to the tune of 1,23,846 metric tonne," commerce and industry ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Also read: Strong fundamentals and reforms helped India attract highest FDI
India has crossed the $200 million mark of export of agricultural processed product, - pickling cucumber, which is globally referred as gherkins or cornichons, in the last financial year, it said.
In 2020-21, India had shipped 2,23,515 metric tonne of cucumber and gherkins with a value of $223 million.
Gherkins are exported under two categories-cucumbers and gherkins, which are prepared and preserved by vinegar or acetic acid and those which are provisionally preserved.
Also read: India test-fires latest version of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile
Indian Embassy in Berlin opens exhibition to honour Netaji Bose on his 125th birth anniversary
Indian Embassy in Berlin on Sunday celebrated Parakram Diwas by opening a special exhibition to honour Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on his 125th birth anniversary, reported ANI.
The exhibition titled "Bose 125", which includes rare, personal letters and memorabilia from Netaji, was inaugurated at the Embassy by Ambassador of India to Germany Harish Parvathaneni and Prof. Dr Anita Bose Pfaff, Netaji's daughter.
The Government of India has been celebrating January 23 as Parakram Diwas since 2021.
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On the occasion of the 125th Birth Anniversary of Netaji, the Government of India has included Parakram Diwas in the Republic Day celebrations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a hologram statue of Netaji at the India Gate to mark the occasion.
External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar paid homage to Netaji on the occasion of Parakram Diwas through a tweet. He referred to Netaji's indomitable spirit and devotion to the motherland as a source of constant inspiration to all Indians, including the youth.
Dr Bose Pfaff, an Overseas Citizen of India, expressed deep appreciation for the Government of India's decision to commence Republic Day celebrations with Netaji's birth anniversary and conveyed her greetings to people of India on this joyous occasion. Ambassador of India, in his remarks, stated that India would be eternally indebted to Netaji Bose for his role in the freedom struggle and the Independence of India.
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Ambassador recalled the immortal words of Netaji Bose "India is God's beloved land. He has come into being in many countries in human form but not so many times in any other country- that is why I say, India, our motherland, is God's beloved land."
As we celebrate "Amrit Mahotsav" in Germany, the Ambassador announced the commitment of the Government of India to build a strong, confident, and Atma Nirbhar Bharat as envisioned by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
1-month lockdown lifts in Chinese city, 2M in Beijing tested
Chinese authorities lifted a monthlong lockdown on the northern city of Xi’an and its 13 million residents Monday as infections subside ahead of the Winter Olympics in Beijing in less than two weeks.
Meanwhile, the 2 million residents of one Beijing district have been ordered to undergo testing following a series of cases in the capital.
The government told people in areas of Beijing deemed at high risk for infection not to leave the city after 25 cases were found in the Fengtai district and 14 elsewhere.
Fengtai residents have lined up on snow-covered sidewalks in freezing weather for testing.
The Olympics are being held under strict controls that are meant to isolate athletes, staff, reporters and officials from residents. Athletes are required to be vaccinated or undergo a quarantine after arriving in China.
The announcement by Xi’an’s government Monday followed the restart of commercial flights from the city the day before. The major industrial center and former imperial capital, famed as the home of the Terracotta Warrior statue army, had struggled to keep residents fed and the local economy alive while people were confined to their homes.
Read: UAE says it intercepts 2 ballistic missilles over Abu Dhabi
Xi’an has been a cornerstone of the ruling Communist Party’s “zero tolerance” strategy toward COVID-19 that mandates lockdowns, travel restrictions and mass testing whenever a case is discovered.
Xi’an is about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) southwest of Beijing, where the Olympics open Feb. 4.
Access to Xi’an was suspended Dec. 22 following an outbreak attributed to the delta variant of the coronavirus.
Other outbreaks prompted the government to impose travel bans on a number of cities, including the port of Tianjin, about an hour from Beijing. The stiff regulations are credited with preventing major nationwide outbreaks and China has reported relatively few cases of the highly infectious omicron variant.
China on Monday reported just 18 new cases of local infection, including six in Beijing. The country has 2,754 current cases of infection and has reported a total of 105,660 cases of COVID-19 with 4,636 deaths.
Read: UAE says it intercepts 2 ballistic missilles over Abu Dhabi
Despite falling case numbers, pandemic controls have been stepped up ahead of the Olympics, where all participants must be tested before and after their arrival in Beijing.
Organizers on Monday said 39 people among the 2,586 athletes, team officials and others who arrived after Jan. 4 had tested positive for the virus upon landing at Beijing airport. Another 33 people who had already entered the bubble isolating participants from the general public later tested positive, the organizing committee said on its website.
The statement did not identify those who tested positive other than to say they were “outside stakeholders,” a term that excludes athletes or coaches. China mandates 21 days of quarantine for people arriving from abroad, but had waived that for those coming for the Olympics on condition they tested negative for the virus.
In Kashmir, India batters press freedom — and journalists
For five years, Sajad Gul wrote about conflict wracking his homeland, a disputed Himalayan territory where a violent armed rebellion and India’s brutal counterinsurgency have raged for over three decades.
That changed on a snowy Wednesday night in January with a knock at his house. Gul was surrounded by Indian soldiers wielding automatic rifles who bundled him into a vehicle and sped away, plowing through the snow-laden track in Hajin, a quiet village about 20 miles from Srinagar, the region’s main city, said his mother, Gulshana, who only uses one name.
Journalists have long contended with various threats in Indian-controlled Kashmir and found themselves caught between warring sides. But their situation has gotten dramatically worse since India revoked the region’s semi-autonomy in 2019, throwing Kashmir under a severe security and communication lockdown and the media in a black hole. A year later, the government’s new media policy sought to control the press more effectively to censure independent reporting.
Dozens have been arrested, interrogated and investigated under harsh anti-terror laws. Fearing reprisals, local press has largely wilted under pressure.
“Indian authorities appear determined to prevent journalists from doing their jobs,” said Steven Butler, Asia program coordinator of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
Gul’s arrest, which the CPJ condemned, underscored the fast-eroding press freedoms and criminalization of journalists in Kashmir.
Police told Gul’s family that he was arrested for provoking people to “resort to violence and disturb public peace.” A police statement later described him as “habitual of spreading disinformation” and “false narratives” on social media.
Read: Indian man beaten to death inside historic Sikh temple
He was detained days after his single tweet linked a video clip of a protest against Indian rule, following a Kashmiri rebel’s killing. He spent 11 days locked up before a local court granted him bail.
Instead of freeing Gul, authorities charged him in a new case under the Public Safety Act, which allows officials to imprison anyone for up to two years without trial.
“My son is not a criminal,” said Gulshana. “He only used to write.”
Media has always been tightly controlled in India’s part of Muslim-majority Kashmir. Arm twisting and fear have been extensively used to intimidate the press since 1989, when rebels began fighting Indian soldiers in a bid to establish an independent Kashmir or union with Pakistan. Pakistan controls Kashmir’s other part and the two counties fiercely claim the territory in full.
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The fighting has left tens of thousands of people dead. Yet, Kashmir’s diverse media flourished despite relentless pressure from Indian authorities and rebel groups.
That changed in 2019, when authorities began filing criminal cases against some journalists. Several of them have been forced to reveal their sources, while others have been physically assaulted.
“Authorities have created a systematic fear and launched a direct assault on free media. There is complete intolerance of even a single critical word,” said Anuradha Bhasin, an editor at Kashmir Times, a prominent English daily that was established in 1954.
Bhasin was among the few who filed a petition with India’s Supreme Court, resulting in partial restoration of communication services after the 2019 blackout, which the government had said was necessary to stall anti-India protests.
But she soon found herself in the crosshairs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
Bhasin’s legacy newspaper office in Srinagar, operating from a rented government building, was sealed by authorities without any notice. Its staff was not allowed to take out any equipment.
“They are killing local media except those who are willing to become government stenographers,” said Bhasin.
Under Modi, press freedoms in India have steadily shrunk since he was first elected in 2014. Last year, India was ranked 142nd in the global press freedom index by media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, below Afghanistan and Zimbabwe.
Nowhere has this slide been more glaring than in Kashmir.
Authorities have pressed newspapers by chastising editors and starving them of advertisement funds, their main source of income, to chill aggressive reporting.
For the most part, newspapers appear to have cooperated and self-censored stories, afraid to be branded anti-national by a government that equates criticism with secessionism.
“We have been merely trying to keep afloat and hardly have been able to do proper journalism for various reasons, one being that we are mainly dependent on government ads,” said Sajjad Haider, the top editor of Kashmir Observer.
There have been press crackdowns in the region before, especially during periods of mass public uprisings. But the ongoing crackdown is notably worse.
Last week, a few journalists supportive of the Indian government, with assistance from armed police, took control of the Kashmir Valley’s only independent press club. Authorities shut it down a day later, drawing sharp criticism from journalist bodies.
The Editors Guild of India accused the government of being “brazenly complicit” and dubbed it an “armed takeover.” Reporters Without Borders called it an “undeclared coup” and said the region is “steadily being transformed into a black hole for news and information.”
The press club is the region’s latest civil society group to face the government’s widening crackdown. In the last two years, authorities have stopped the Kashmir High Court Bar Association and the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce from holding internal elections.
The government defended its move by citing “potential law and order situation” and “the safety of bona fide journalists.” It said the club failed to register under a new law and hold elections for a new managing body.
The club said new registration was granted by authorities after “six months of rigorous police verification” in late December, but kept in “abeyance” a day later for unknown reasons.
The government’s move ran in stark contrast with its policy in the region’s Hindu-dominated Jammu city where another press club continues to function without having held an election for nearly half a decade.
Majid Maqbool, a local reporter, said the club extended institutional support to journalists working under difficult conditions. “It was like a second home for us,” he said.
Local Kashmiri reporters were often the only eyes on the ground for global audiences, particularly after New Delhi barred foreign journalists from the region without official approval a few years ago. Most of the coverage has focused on the Kashmir conflict and government crackdowns. Authorities are now seeking to control any narrative seen opposed to the broad consensus in India that the region is an integral part of the country.
In this battle of narratives, journalists have been berated by authorities for not using the term “terrorists” for separatist rebels. Government communiques mostly appear on front pages and statements from pro-India Kashmiri groups critical of Modi’s policies are barely published.
Newspaper editorials reflective of the conflict are largely absent. Rare news reports about rights abuses are often dismissed as politically motivated fabrications, emboldening the region’s heavy-handed military and police to muzzle the press.
Some reporters have been subjected to grueling hours of police interrogation, a tactic condemned by the United Nations last year.
Aakash Hassan, an independent Kashmiri journalist who mainly writes for the international press, said he has been summoned at least seven times by Indian authorities in the last two years.
Hassan said sometimes officers would question his motives to report and “lecture me about how to do journalism the right way.”
“It is a way to dissuade us from reporting,” he said, adding that police also questioned his parents several times and probed their finances.
“Sometimes I wonder if it is worth it to be a journalist in Kashmir,” said Hassan. “But I know, silence doesn’t help.”
India blocks 35 Pakistan-backed YouTube channels
India on Friday said that it has blocked as many as 35 Pakistan-backed YouTube channels with over 130 crore views "for spreading fake and misleading information on social media".
The Indian Information and Broadcasting Ministry said the decision to take down the YouTube channels, two Twitter accounts, two Instagram accounts, two websites and one Facebook account operating from Pakistan was made in view of intelligence inputs.
These YouTube channels had been spreading fake news like the Indian government was responsible for the death of this country's first military chief -- General Bipin Rawat -- and that his daughter would accept Islam, the Ministry said.
Read: India test-fires latest version of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile
"The contest is absolutely fake and toxic like the government is responsible for Bipin Rawat's death, North Korean Army is going to Kashmir etc. What sort of nonsense is this," Information secretary Apurva Chandra told the media in the national capital.
"And these YouTube accounts had a total subscriber base of over 1.20 crore. These videos had 130 crore views, which is almost the population of India. Our intelligence agencies are now aware of the situation and more such channels on YouTube will get blocked," he added.
It may be mentioned here that a tri-services probe has already concluded that "human error in cloudy weather" led to the chopper crash that killed India's first military chief, his wife, and 12 other armed forces personnel in the southern state of Tamil Nadu in December last year.
According to the probe report, a sudden cloud cover over Coonoor district in the hilly terrain of the Nilgiris in the southern state of Tamil Nadu led to the military chopper's "unintentional collision with a mountain" on December 8.
Tri-services probe means an investigation by the three branches of the military -- the Indian Army, the Navy, and the Air Force.
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The 63-year-old four-star General was on his way to deliver a lecture at Defence Services Staff College in Wellington when the Mi-17 V5 chopper crashed in the Nilgiris and burst into flames. While 13 people on board were killed on the spot, an Air Force officer died later.
General Rawat has had a chequered career in the armed forces spanning over 40 years, rising from the rank of a junior commissioned officer to the Indian Army chief and eventually the first head of the tri-services. He reported directly to the Indian Prime Minister.