THURSDAY, JUNE 23, 2016 INTERNATIONAL India’s female fighter pilots pave way for more women in combat NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force (IAF) the most challenging task in the armed physical and mental ability to handle the year it would bring women into fighting wings,” he told reporters at the event. has recruited its first female fighter forces. Our long-term objective is to stress of such deployments. roles and approved IAF plans for women “Yet, we will work towards creating more pilots, paving the way for more women work towards gender parity in the armed pilots to fly warplanes from June 2017 opportunities for them.” to be given combat roles as one of the forces.” Opportunities for women on a three-year experimental basis. The three women, who are in their world’s biggest military forces takes Prime Minister Narendra Modi also The country’s defense forces began Indian President Pranab Mukherjee in early twenties, will undergo training on steps towards greater gender parity. congratulated the women, saying it was recruiting women to non-medical posi- February went a step further announc- Hawk advanced jets for a year, before Flying Officers Mohana Singh, Bhawana “a matter of immense pride and joy” to tions in 1992, yet only 2.5 percent of its ing the country would induct women in they fly supersonic warplanes. The new Kanth and Avani Chaturvedi received have the first female fighter pilots. “More more than 1 million personnel are all fighter streams of the armed forces in female fighter pilots told reporters their wings on Saturday when they were power to them,” he tweeted. Only a women - most of them administrators, the future. Defense Minister Parrikar they were excited about the opportu- commissioned into the IAF at a gradua- handful of countries such as Britain, the intelligence officers, doctors, nurses or confirmed plans to extend combat roles nity, adding that they expected to tion ceremony in the southern city of United States, Israel and neighboring dentists. In recent years, Indian courts for women in the army and navy, adding treated on a par with their male coun- Hyderabad. Pakistan, have allowed women into the have pushed the military to widen it would take time. terparts. “I always wanted to be a fight- “It is a golden day as for the first time cockpits of fighter jets. India had until opportunities for women, by giving “There are still a lot of technical and er pilot, but when we joined the option these women are going to join the fight- now kept women out of that role, and them permanent commissions, for administrative difficulties in several was not there,” Kanth said. “So when it er pilots,” Indian Defence Minister away from frontline warships and example, instead of limiting them to areas in taking more women. We need came to us in December 2015, I knew I Manohar Parrikar said at the ceremony. ground combat, citing concerns over five-year terms. to create a lot of infrastructure for was going to grab it with both my “This will inspire more women to take up their vulnerability if captured and their Modi’s government announced last women, especially in air force and navy hands.” —Reuters Popular Pakistani Sufi singer shot dead in ‘act of terror’ Mystical sect of Islam viewed as heretical KARACHI: One of Pakistan’s best endary Qawwali singer, Ghulam relatives, while TV channels of his religious views. known Sufi musicians was shot Farid Sabri who died in 1994, was broadcast recordings of his music “Our own dear Amjad Sabri, dead by unknown assailants rid- a fixture on national television in tribute. “Totally shocked to son of Ghulam Farid Sabri and ing a motorcycle in Karachi on and regularly performed on a hear the news of @AmjadSabri. nephew of Maqbool Sabri, the Wednesday, triggering an out- morning show during the ongo- May Allah bless him with Jannah renowned Sabri brothers, was a pouring of grief over what police ing holy Muslim month of (heaven) for he praised Him & His true lover of God, life and all described as an “act of terror”. Ramadan. Prophet beautifully all his life,” that’s good,” he said. “His mission Amjad Sabri, aged around 45, In May 2014 he was asked by a tweeted Ayaz Sadiq, the speaker of love has tragically been cut was travelling by car from his court to respond to blasphemy of Pakistan’s parliament. short by those who spread hate home in the city’s eastern charges following the broadcast “Shocked and saddened by in the world, and is a great loss Korangi area to a television stu- of a controversial song-and- news of the killing of Amjad for all the divided people of our dio, when a motorcycle pulled up dance routine that was set to a Sabri, not just a crime but an country,” he added. alongside the vehicle and the Qawwali piece about the wed- attack on our culture and her- Karachi, a city of 20 million KATHMANDU: Nepalese relatives of 12 victims of a suicide bomb attack react attackers opened fire, Farooq ding of the Prophet Mohammed’s itage,” added Mustafa Qadri, a and Pakistan’s economic hub, is as they pay their last respects alongside the coffins of those killed. —AFP Sanjarani, a police officer told daughter to his cousin. human rights researcher at frequently hit by religious, politi- AFP. Sabri was hit by five bullets Amnesty International. While the cal and ethnic violence. and was declared dead at Abbasi ‘Mission of love’ motive behind the killing was Paramilitary forces began a ‘Devastated’ Nepalese receive Shaheed Hospital while a com- His killing was met with shock not immediately clear, Arieb sweeping crackdown on mili- panion, named as a relative, and condemnation. Neighbors Azhar, another popular Sufi tants in the city in 2013, which the bodies of Kabul victims Saleem Sabri, was in critical con- congregated outside the singer’s singer, told AFP he believed Sabri has led to a substantial drop in dition, a hospital source added. home to offer condolences to his may have been targeted because overall levels of violence. —AFP KATHMANDU: Dozens of people, many in members, many of whom had camped out “It was a targeted killing and tears, thronged Kathmandu’s airport yester- for hours at the airport. “The whole country an act of terrorism,” Muqaddas day to receive the bodies of 12 Nepali is mourning the death of innocent Nepalese Haider, a senior police officer guards killed in a suicide bomb attack in killed in this cowardly attack,” Oli told said, without naming possible Kabul this week. The victims were among 14 reporters after placing marigold garlands on suspects. Grisly mobile phone security guards who were killed Monday in a each coffin. footage of the scene of the crime Taliban suicide blast targeting their bus as The aircraft, chartered by the Nepal gov- shot by an onlooker showed the they headed to work at the Canadian ernment, also brought back 24 other singer’s head slumped on his embassy in Kabul. Nepalese who worked as guards for Sabre right shoulder and a pool of Afghan authorities had earlier said that International, the same company that blood on the ground by the dri- all 14 were Nepali nationals, before employed the victims. “It could have been ver’s side where he sat. Kathmandu clarified that 12 of the victims me,” said former Nepal army soldier Shyam belonged to Nepal. Relatives and friends Bahadur Tamang, 47, who began working in Targeted sect broke down in tears as they approached the Afghanistan in 2014. “There is no security Sabri was a ‘Qawwal’, or singer pink-and-white coffins, tagged with the for us... there are many other Nepalese who of ‘Qawwali’, which is a tradition- names of the dead. “Our family is devastat- are eager to quit and return home,” Tamang al form of Islamic devotional ed,” said Sarajan Adhikari, whose brother-in- told AFP. music that is popular across law Madhusudhan Koirala was killed in the Authorities said around 3,300 Nepalese South Asia with roots tracing attack. were currently working in Afghanistan as back to the 13th century. The The 45-year-old’s death was the latest security guards but accurate figures for the music is closely associated with tragedy to hit the family. The guard lost two total number employed across the world are Sufism, a mystical sect of Islam children in last year’s massive earthquake hard to come by. Impoverished Nepal has that is viewed as heretical by that killed nearly 9,000 people in the long served as a supplier of security forces hardline groups such as the Himalayan nation. “(My sister) had told him to the world. A number of them are former Taleban. not to go (back) the last time he came soldiers with the Gurkha brigades of the The Taleban and other Islamist home. It was only the compulsion to earn Indian and British army’s while others are groups have carried out major that made him return,” Adhikari told AFP. retired Nepal army or police personnel. Four attacks on Sufi mosques and Nepal’s Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli Nepali guards were killed in a 2011 attack on shrines in recent years, including offered a floral tribute to the victims as he a UN compound in the northern Afghan city the 2010 bombing of the Data attempted to console distraught family of Mazar-i-Sharif in 2011. —AFP Darbar shrine in Lahore that killed more than 40 people. KARACHI: Pakistani investigators and journalists gather around the blood-stained car of famous Sabri, the son of another leg- Sufi singer Amjad Sabri after an attack in Karachi, Pakistan, yesterday.