Addressing jawans near the border in Anupgarh, Rajasthan, directly opposite Bahawalpur in Pakistan on Friday, Army chief Gen. Upendra Dwivedi gave a strong warning.
He said, Pakistan must stop supporting terrorism if it wants to “remain on the world map”. The general said, India will not show restraint it exercised during Operation Sindoor in May this year.
The army chief told jawans: “Keep yourselves fully prepared…God willing, the oportunity will come soon.”
The army chief’s warning comes a day after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh warned Pakistan about recent military build-up near Sir Creek region. Rajnath Singh had said, “any misadventure would result in a response which will be so strong that it will change both history and geography….Pakistan must remember the road to Karachi also passes through the Sir Creek.”
On Friday, Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal A. P. Singh revealed that the IAF destroyed nine to ten Pakistani fighter jets like F-16 and JF-17, and at least two special aircraft, apart from destroying its surface-to-air missile system.
The air chief said, “If they (Paksitan) think they downed 15 of my jets, let them think so. I hope they’re convinced about it, and they will cater for 15 less aircraft in my inventory when they come to fight again. Why should I talk about it?”
He rejected Pakistan’s claims of dowing Indian jet fighters as “manohar kahaniyan”(imaginary stories).
The air chief said, Pakistan army and its terror outfits have changed their strategy after Operation Sindoor. Both Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Taiyaba have shifted their main bases from Pak Occupied Kashmir to the Pak-Afghan border in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa.
He said, instead of building big buildings, the terror outfits have built small structures to evade identification through satellites. The Air Chief Marshal said, whatever ploy they may use, they will not save themselves from the Indian armed forces.
Watching the Army and Air chiefs’ remarks, it seems they have credible inputs about Pakistan planning to start another misadventure. This may be the reason why the Defence Minister and the Army and Air chiefs issued warnings to Pakistan, threatening to brush off the neighbour from the world map.
The Air Chief clearly described the present strength of the Indian Air Force and its intentions. The Army Chief has asked jawans to be prepared for any eventuality and told them they would get the opportunity (to strike) soon.
It is not difficult to interpret the meanings of their remarks. In today’s modern warfare, words are thrown at the enemy like arrows even before the first missile is fired. One has to win the battle of perception while trying to win a war. Both the Army and Air Chiefs have fired their first BrahMos missile for perception.

Awareness is key to tackle cyber crimes

Normally, most of us know how frauds are perpetrated by cyber criminals, but on Friday, superstar Akshay Kumar recounted how his 13-year-old daughter, while playing online games, was asked by a stranger to send her nude photos.
Akshay Kumar said, “the person started sending polite messages like ‘thank you’, ‘well played’ and ‘fantastic’. “He seemed like a nice person, but after some time, he asked her if she was male and female. When my daughter replied she was female, the stranger asked her to send her nude pictures. My daughter immediately shut down the online game and told my wife.”
Akshay was speaking at the inauguration of Cybersecurity Awareness Month at Maharashtra Police HQ in Mumbai.
The actor advised parents to keep watch on their children who play online games. He said, such criminals start blackmailing kids once they get hold of sensitive pictures.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said, cyber crimes are on the rise and criminals target teenagers. Both Centre and Maharashtra governments have set up helplines to tackle such crimes.
Akshay Kumar is right. Nearly 20 days ago, I had shown in my show ‘Aaj Ki Baat’ how 14-year-old Yash gave away Rs 14 lakhs from his father’s bank account in Lucknow, and after being scolded, he committed suicide on September 13. Police have arrested two criminals from Jharkhand in this case. One of them is an adolescent and Rs 5 lakhs have been recovered from the criminals.
Online gaming has become a big problem in India. You will be surprised to know, nearly 20 pc online gamers of the world are from India. Nearly 59 crore Indians play online games. Not only cyber frauds, but IGD (internet gaming disorder) is now rampant among kids in India. Nearly nine per cent students suffer from IGD. They lose sleep, ignore studies and display anger.
Indians lose nearly Rs 20,000 crore every year because of online gaming. There have been several cases of suicides by online gamers. In Karnataka alone, 32 such suicides have taken place. Sexual harassment is now common in such games. Girls in the 10-16 age group are the prime targets. The problem is, nearly 45 per cent kids hide cases of sexual harassment from their parents out of fear.
Several countries have enacted laws to control online gaming. Australia has imposed blanket ban on children under the age of 16 from using social media. In France, kids under the age of 15 have to take consent from their parents before opening social media accounts, while in Germany, the same law is applicable for kids under the age of 16.
In Britain, stringent safeguards have been put through Online Safety Act. In India, online money games have been banned and it has been implemented from October 1. But there are other online games that are active. Cyber expert Pawan Duggal says, accountability of service providers must be fixed for online gaming.
I feel, India should enact a strong law against online games. The problem of cyber crimes will not be solved only by enacting a stringent law. One should not expect too. The need of the hour is to create awareness among kids so that they can trut their parents and share with them what happens in such online games.
Akshay Kumar’s daughter is knowledgeable. She refused to fall in the trap and informed her parents. But all kids may not be like her.
There are two aspects of online gaming. One, people were being robbed of their money resulting in the unfortunate suicide of the Lucknow boy. Two, online gaming is used to trap girls and this continues.
To tackle this, awareness must be created among teenagers and parents. Many cases of cyber crimes and frauds with teenagers have come to notice.
Schools will have to play a major role. A nationwide campaign must be launched so that teachers can create awareness among students. It is also media’s responsibility to highlight such cyber cases and inform and educate the people on how to keep people safe from cyber criminals.
Get connected on Twitter, Instagram & Facebook