Indian Military

KARACHI: Suspected militants have stormed an airbase in Karachi late Sunday night, rocking one of the nation's heavily guarded military installations with fiery explosions and leaving at least 10 people, including six of them, dead just three-week after the death of Osama bin Laden.
They also blew up a PC3 Orion aircraft in one of the most brazen attacks in years.
Pakistani security personnel are still battling with the militants holed up at the Pakistan Air Force's Faisal airbase which also houses PNS Mehran, the naval air station, the country's interior minister Rehman Malik said.
"I can confirm that security forces have killed six of the attackers while the rest are holed up in one building of the air station and are fighting a losing battle," Malik told Aaj television channel.
Malik said heavy contingents of special naval and military commandoes and other security forces have been rushed to the base to control the situation.
Earlier, officials of the Citizens Police Liaison Committee confirmed that at least four naval personnel were killed.

KARACHI: About 12 hours after storming Pakistan navy's key airbase in the heart of the port city of Karachi, heavily-armed Taliban militants were still holding onto parts of the base after destroying two US-made surveillance aircraft and killing 12 military personnel.
Pakistan army's elite Special Service Group (SSG) and naval commandos backed by helicopters were hunting down a group of 15-20 militants who attacked the naval premises last night in the worst assault on a military base since the Army Headquarters was besieged in October 2009 in Rawalpindi.
Security forces were engaged in a deadly gunbattle with armed militants since last night after the militants sneaked into the PNS Mehran, the naval air station within Faisal airbase, from three residential points adjacent to the air base.
Fifteen loud explosions were heard from the base, the headquarters of Pakistan's naval air arm, following the attack and intermittent firing was reported till this morning.
The security forces also killed four militants and have captured four alive, a senior security official said.

WASHINGTON: It's a subject Americans can't stop discussing and one Pakistan hates talking about. The terrorist attack on the Pakistani military facility in Karachi has once again focused world (and Washington's) attention on the security of the country's fast-growing nuclear arsenal.
The Obama administration on Monday did not publicly go beyond "strongly" condemning the attack on Pakistan Naval Station (PNS) Mehran and appreciating the "service and sacrifices of their brave Armed Forces," but the incident has re-ignited the simmering debate about vulnerability of its nuclear weapons. US analysts noted that Mehran is only 15 miles away from the Masroor Air Base, where Pakistan is believed have a large depot for nuclear weapons that can be delivered from the air.
While Pakistan insists that its "crown jewels" are under foolproof security, at the heart of the debate is worry that they are vulnerable to internal pilferage or attack by a "jihadized" military, judging by multiple attacks on military facilities by terrorists who seemingly have the inside track on security, including in the Mehran strike.

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani journalist who investigated al-Qaida's alleged infiltration of the country's navy was found dead on Tuesday, and police said there were signs he'd been tortured.
The journalist, Syed Saleem Shahzad of the Asia Times Online, had been missing for two days. He had told a rights activist in recent months that he feared the country's intelligence agencies planned to retaliate against him over some of his reporting. Shahzad's stories on the alleged infiltration followed a deadly 18-hour militant siege of a naval base earlier last week in Karachi.
A brother-in-law identified Shahzad's body, police official Bilal Ahmad said. It was found roughly six miles (10 kilometers) from his vehicle in Mandi Bahauddin district outside Islamabad. An initial examination found signs of torture, but an autopsy had to be performed, Ahmad said.
Shahzad's death underscores the threats facing journalists in Pakistan, which a prominent media group said was the deadliest country for reporters in 2010.

KOCHI: India's latest warship 'INS Kabra' was commissioned at Naval Base here by Vice Admiral K N Sushil, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Naval Command on Wednesday.
Speaking on the occasion, the Vice Admiral stressed the importance of relatively smaller ships like Fast Attack Crafts for a blue water navy, pointing that these were essential inventory for low intensity conflicts and anti-piracy operations.
The ship is named after an island in Andaman and Nicobar archipelago.
Rear Admiral K C Shekhar, Chairman and Managing Director, Garden Reach Ship Builders and Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata, said INS Kabra was a cost effective and fuel efficient platform.
INS Kabra is the eighth of a series built at GRSE. With a top speed of over 35 knots and manoeuvrability offered by her water-jet propulsion, the ship was ideally suited for high-speed interdiction of fast-moving targets and useful in search and rescue operations, he said.
INS Kabra complies with the latest regulations of International Maritime Organisation on sea pollution control.

NEW DELHI: India is finally getting ready to spend around Rs 10,000 crore on the proposed major expansion of the strategic Karwar naval base in coastal Karnataka. Aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya (the refurbished Admiral Gorshkov), Scorpene attack submarines and other frontline warships will be based there in the future.
This comes at a time when India is faced with the likelihood of Chinese warships using the Gwadar deep-sea port in Pakistan, which it helped build in the last decade, in the years ahead.
Apprehensions on this were reinforced recently when Pakistani defence minister Ahmed Mukhtar publicly declared that Islamabad had asked Beijing to build a naval base at Gwadar, which offers direct access to the Gulf region.
Though China was quick to deny it had any interest in establishing a naval base of its own at Gwadar, Beijing's assiduous role in building ports in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka has only served to underline its "string of pearls" strategic construct in the Indian Ocean Region.

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistan navy spokesman says the force has court-martialled three of its officers for "negligence'' in connection with a dramatic Taliban attack on a naval base in the southern port city of Karachi last year.
The brazen, 18-hour assault on Naval Station Mehran last May destroyed two US-supplied surveillance aircraft and killed 10 people on the base.
The ability of the militants to penetrate the high-security base led to speculation they may have had inside information or assistance.
Commodore Irfanul Haq told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the three naval officers were punished for their performance, but there was no evidence they were linked to the militants or helped them attack the base. He declined to identify the names or ranks of the officers.