9 APRIL 2016

Ø  The National Investigation Agency (NIA) secured non-bailable arrest warrants against Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Maulana Masood Azhar, his brother Abdul Rauf and two others for allegedly conspiring to carry out terror strike on the strategic Indian Air Force base in Pathankot.

Ø  India is in talks with the United States to purchase 40 Predator surveillance drones, officials said, a possible first step towards acquiring the armed version of the aircraft and a development likely to annoy Pakistan. India is trying to equip the military with more unmanned technologies to gather intelligence as well as boost its firepower along the vast land borders with Pakistan and China. It also wants a closer eye on the Indian Ocean. New Delhi has already acquired surveillance drones from Israel to monitor the mountains of Kashmir, a region disputed by the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals and the cause of two of their three wars. As defence ties deepen with the United States, which sees India as a counterweight to China in the region, New Delhi has asked Washington for the Predator series of unmanned planes built by privately-held General Atomics, military officials said. “We are aware of Predator interest from the Indian Navy. However, it is a government-to-government discussion,” Vivek Lall, chief executive of U.S. and International Strategic Development at San Diego-based General Atomics, told Reuters. The U.S. government late last year cleared General Atomics’ proposal to market the unarmed Predator XP in India.

Ø  India is set to hand over the remains of U.S. combatants and an aircraft shot down over Arunachal Pradesh during World War II to Defence Secretary Ashton Carter during his visit next week. The solemn ceremony will help spotlight India’s significant but little discussed contribution to the allied war effort, according to analysts. About 12 years back, the U.S. provided Indian officials with the grid references of the crash sites and sought their assistance to retrieve any surviving remains so that they could be returned to the families of the service men, said an Indian army officer who was associated with the early search operations and declined to be named citing service regulations. Initially, the Army was pressed in to locate the sites following a request from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), which was coordinating the multi-ministry effort. Later, a specialist team from the U.S. Defence Prisoners of War/Missing in Action Accounting Agency (DPAA) undertook the retrieval.

Ø  Looking beyond the current difficulties in reviving a stalled multi-billion dollar project, Sri Lanka and China are now defining a new blueprint, based on rapid infrastructure development, to rail their growing ties for the future.