As IMA Jewels founder Mohammed Mansoor Khan pulled off a flawless escape, his  flight to Dubai has left the police in a quandary, with more questions than anwers

BENGALURU: Soon after they finished celebrating Eid, thousands of investors in IMA Jewels were in for a shock. Just a few days after the festival, they are now staring at the possibility of never getting back the money they had parked with IMA Jewels for the promise of spectacular returns.

Since June 8, when promoter Mohammed Mansoor Khan left for Dubai, no one has been able to come up with an explanation as to how Mansoor managed to escape. Police say that he left for Dubai on June 8 after having cleared his showroom of all displayed jewels and diamonds. But ask them if he took the multi-crore booty with him, bypassing officials at the airport, and they have no answer. Several questions still exist on how Mansoor managed to pull off the perfect escape.

“There are too many loopholes in how he left the country. His cars were found at the airport but the driver – his man Friday- is missing. Mansoor was also questioned by the Central Crime Branch on June 6 and was warned of police action. He disappeared within 48 hours,” an officer said. Also suspect is his decision to put the blame on Congress MLA Roshan Baig, turning the entire development into a political potboiler. For investors, there is nothing but bad news for now according to the police themselves, who pointed out that in spite of red flags raised as far back as 2014, but even then no action was taken.

“The RBI had in 2014 itself red-flagged IMA on several markers. The police could have called for documents and questioned Mansoor, but they chose to look the other way,” a police officer said.
Discussing the hawala angle, the officer added, “It seems, prima facie, that Mansoor routed the depositor’s money outside the country through hawala. Many high bracket depositors would have used hawala to deposit black money in IMA,” the officer said.

Though the agencies have their work cut out for them, the volume is huge. “The manpower and resources given are limited, given the vast scope of the investigation,” the officer admitted.While the SIT may invoke the Karnataka Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishments Act, 2004, critics of the law say it is neither punitive nor effective. Another law, the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Ordinance, 2019, could be invoked, earning the state the infamy of having the IMA scam as the first case to be booked under the ordinance.

“The government must hand over the case to the CBI. Most investments were done in cash, bullion and jewellery, raising serious national security concerns. They run into crores of rupees,” said a police officer, on condition of anonymity, adding that it was natural that the state would resist a CBI probe, considering the revelations of corruption that would result from one.

In response, the official police reaction has been to deny all interest in IMA till someone came ahead to file a complaint. “There were no complaints against IMA until June 9 when Mohammed Khalid Ahammed registered a complaint. People are to be blamed for investing in such companies,” said a police officer.

BENGALURU:

Seven directors of the city-based IMA Jewels were arrested and are being grilled by the Special Investigation Team to know their alleged role in the multi-crore ponzi scam operated by its owner Mohammed Mansoor Khan, police said on Thursday.

“On being warned against delaying the inevitable, the directors turned up at the city police commissioner’s office and surrendered on Wednesday. They were arrested and produced in a local court for our custody to interrogate them as Khan is still at large,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (central) Rahul Kumar told reporters.

The accused directors — Anwar Pasha, Arshad Khan, Dada Peer, Naveed Ahmed, Nazir Hussain, Nizamuddin and Waseem — were remanded in 10-day police custody to unearth the scam, which swindled the hard-earned savings of thousands of investors from across the state.

“As the case is being investigated by the SIT, its head B.R. Ravikanth Gowda is interrogating the accused on what went wrong leading to the IMA (I Monetary Advisory) go bust and Khan fleeing the country last week,” said Kumar.

IMA’s chartered account Iqbal Khan was also arrested on early Thursday after the directors disclosed his name and his alleged role in the scam that has rocked the state and the minority community as majority of investors and depositors in its ponzi schemes are lower and middle class Muslims.

Though the police launched a massive hunt for Khan, he is reported to have fled the country after Eid on June 5 along with his family, and huge quantity of gold ornaments, silver jewellery, diamonds and unspecified amount of cash from his posh showroom in the city’s centre.

“We are on the lookout for Khan and will seek Interpol’s help through the Union home ministry to extradite him to India after ascertaining in which country he is hiding,” said Kumar.

The ponzi scam came to light on June 10 when the IMA showroom did not open for business after a week-long closure for Eid-ul-Fitr at the end of Ramzan last week and its Managing Director (Khan) reportedly fled to Dubai or Saudi Arabia to escape the wrath of his investors as their savings are lost.

The SIT team also raided IMA’s head office and its main showroom and seized volumes of documents related to properties, assets, collaterals pledged by investors and depositors and bank accounts for investigation.

About 20,000 investors have filed a complaint with the local police station, enclosing a photocopy of documents, including passbooks showing their investments in the company.

The SIT has directed the banks to freeze the accounts of the company, Khan and his relatives to prevent any transaction.

Nasheman news

Investors panicked when the company started defaulting on payments

In March 2019, probably for the first time in 13 years, the I Monetary Advisory (IMA) Group, which had taken money from tens of thousands of investors across the State, defaulted on payments.

On June 9, the police received a trickle of complaints from a few citizens. In less than a week, while Eid was being celebrated, that trickle grew into a flood with more than 33,500 complaints against the group and its founder and managing director Mohammed Mansoor Khan, who is absconding.

The IMA Group had been under the scanner of several agencies, but no action had been taken. According to officials, not a single citizen had stepped forward in response to a public notice in November 2018 by the Revenue Department seeking complaints against the group for cheating investors.

Founded in 2006, the group took deposits from citizens on which monthly dividend was paid in the range of 2.75% to 8%. “Many of those who complained against Ambidant Marketing [another company allegedly involved in a similar scam] had invested in IMA as well. But they were not willing to file a complaint against IMA at the time as they were receiving dividends,” said a senior revenue official.

Initial rumblings

The situation changed in March 2019 when IMA started defaulting on payments.

“IMA has now revealed itself to be a ponzi-like scheme, which operates on the constant rotation of money, where old investors are paid with money taken from new investors. Money is ploughed into various businesses, in this case gold bullion, jewellery and real estate. If any chunk of investment is stuck or there is lack of new investors, it will disrupt the cycle and the company will go kaput. This is exactly what seems to have happened with IMA,” explained a senior police official.

With Mansoor Khan successfully giving dividends for 13 years, investigators are probing the reason for the default. In an audio message, which he recorded before he went underground, Mansoor claimed to have given Congress leader Roshan Baig ₹400 crore, which was not returned. Mr. Baig has denied the charge.

The Special Investigation Team and the Enforcement Directorate are now auditing his accounts to find out how the funds received as investments were diverted. Police sources said that in the past two years, IMA had come under severe stress.

According to a source in the police, “Mansoor, who was being blackmailed by various agencies and even some media organisations, had to make contributions to politicians to stay afloat. His attempts to borrow money from the market failed.”

When money was tight and he started defaulting on payments, he alerted investors and blamed the eight-week-long parliamentary elections for “disrupting cash flow in our market”. In a series of messages to investors, he gave several deadlines for payments in April and May, but missed all of them. As rumours grew on social media that he was planning to flee, Mansoor sent a message to investors in mid-May appealing to them not to listen to rumours and asked them to file complaints with the cyber crime cell of the police against those who were carrying out this “misinformation campaign”. He assured investors that the network was “sound enough with its gold stock and business clientele network, assets in the form of land and buildings”.

But it did little to stem the panic.

In the last message on May 27, he asked investors not to come to the IMA offices for one week as the rush of people was hampering business. Two days later, he closed the offices. He assured investors that he would pay all their dues by June 5 and re-open the offices by June 10. It is now learnt that he even held a meeting with other directors of IMA and assured them that all was well.

Police step in

In the backdrop of these initial rumblings, acting on orders from Neelamani N. Raju, DG&IGP, Karnataka State Police, the Central Crime Branch called Mansoor for questioning. “On June 6, he was questioned for over an hour. We sought documents about the financial health of his company, which he promised to submit,” said Alok Kumar, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime), Bengaluru.

But this seemed to be the tipping point. Fearing arrest, Mansoor is said to have fled the country on the night of June 8. The SIT is yet to confirm this. Hours before he absconded, he posted on Facebook: “The IMA Group has property worth ₹1,050 crore in Bengaluru. It has physical assets, but people don’t have patience, people are greedy, people are anxious, people filled with anxiety, people filled with un-Islamic life.”

BJP for central intervention

While demanding a CBI probe, BJP State president and leader of opposition B.S. Yeddyurappa said that party MPs from the State will press for intervention by the Union government on behalf of cheated investors. He was speaking to a delegation of cheated IMA investors that met him on Saturday and sought his support.

“The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has already started a probe. We also speak to the Union government to make all efforts to arrest the absconding kingpin Mohammed Mansoor Khan, said to have fled abroad. Only a CBI probe can deliver justice to the victims,” he said.

Meanwhile, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) accused politicians and a few religious heads from the minority community of providing credibility to IMA and its kingpin. It demanded a probe into their role in abetment of the crime as well.

SIT raids residences of directors

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Saturday searched the residences of the seven IMA directors who are currently in their custody.

Six teams conducted simultaneous searches in Tusker Town, Shivajinagar, Govindapura and HBR Layout, and seized a cache of documents related to IMA.

Meanwhile, the auditor, Iqbal Khan, was questioned for the second consecutive day. “He has not been arrested, but is helping the SIT audit the accounts of the firm, to understand the scam,” said a source.

So far, the number of complaints against the company has reached 33,500.

Sources said SIT officials are preparing paper work to get a Red Corner Notice issued against Mansoor even though some suspect him of fleeing to the UAE on June 8.

courtesy

The Hindu

Dr S Jaishankar, a career diplomat with extensive experience in bilateral relations with China, US and Pakistan, said he was “honoured to be given this responsibility”.

Dr Jaishankar joined PM Modi’s cabinet on Thursday. (File)
NEW DELHI: 

The country’s new Foreign Minister, Dr S Jaishankar, in his first tweet this morning, after he took charge of Ministry of External Affairs on Friday, said he was “proud to follow on the footsteps” of his predecessor and senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj.

Dr Jaishankar, a career diplomat with extensive experience in bilateral relations with China, US and Pakistan, said he was “honoured to be given this responsibility”.

“My first tweet. Thank you all for the best wishes! Honoured to be given this responsibility. Proud to follow on the footsteps of @SushmaSwaraj ji,” he wrote. 

He was one of the 57 ministers who took oath on Thursday at a glittering ceremony with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, elected for a second term with a huge mandate.

In another tweet, Dr Jaishankar wrote: “We at Team @MEAIndia continue to be at your service 24×7”.

Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, Dr Jaishankar’s predecessor, was known for her prompt response to distress calls on Twitter. She leaves a legacy of being an easily-accessible foreign minister.

Soon after his Twitter debut, Dr Jaishankar also replied to the congratulatory messages from United States, France, among other countries.

Dr Jaishankar, who had received the Padma Shri award from President Ram Nath Kovind in March, was the country’s longest-serving foreign secretary in four decades between 2015 and 2018 and helped craft much of PM Modi’s foreign policy.

As the new foreign minister, S Jaishankar will be expected to bring to bear experience from his time as the Indian ambassador to China between 2009 and 2013 and help improve relations with Beijing, which were badly hit following the Doklam stand-off in 2017.

His appointment also comes at a time when India’s relations with Pakistan are at a sensitive point following the tragic terror attack in Pulwama in February that killed 40 soldiers.

Dr Jaishankar is not a member of parliament yet.

The swearing-in ceremony will begin at 7 pm, with nearly 8,000 guests attending the grand event at Rashtrapati Bhavan, including leaders from Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan

Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his mother, Sonia Gandhi, will also be present at the oath ceremony
NEW DELHI: 

Hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s oath ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, for which 8,000 people have been invited, the government’s media department put out an advisory urging journalists to wear hats and sunglasses to prepare for “a long summer evening”. 

A communication sent from the PM’s Publicity and Reference Unit said: “We are preparing ourselves for a long summer evening. So, it will be better if you carry hat and sunglasses.”

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), temperatures today will touch a maximum of 44 degrees Celsius and weather conditions have been described as “heat wave”.

The swearing-in ceremony will begin at 7 pm, with nearly 8,000 guests attending the grand event at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Leaders of BIMSTEC countries, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan, have been invited in line with the government’s “Neighbourhood First” policy.

PM Modi began the day with a series of visits. He first visited the memorials of Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat and then paid tribute to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at his memorial Sadaiv Atal Samadhi.

He also visited the National War Memorial near India Gate.

The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance returned to power with a massive haul of 352 seats in the Lok Sabha elections. The BJP won 303 seats on its own.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his mother, Sonia Gandhi, will also be present at the oath ceremony.

Chief Ministers of non-BJP ruled states will also attend the event, except for Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee, who pulled out accusing the BJP of trying to politicise the occasion. She accused the BJP of falsely alleging that 54 of its workers were killed in political violence in Bengal and then inviting their families to the oath.

Most of the students are said to be between the ages of 15 and 21. The fire was reportedly triggered by a short circuit.

20 people have died and more than 20 have been injured in the fire.
SURAT: 

At least 20 people, mostly students, have died in the massive fire that broke out at a coaching centre in Gujarat’s Surat on Friday afternoon.Police have arrested the owner of the coaching centre and have registered a case against the coaching centre owner and builders of the complex.

“20 people have died and more than 20 have been injured in the fire that broke out in Surat yesterday. An FIR has been registered against three people,” Satish Sharma, Commissioner of Police Surat, said.

Two of the injured students were on ventilator and five have been admitted to intensive care units (ICU), news agency IANS reported.

The fire reportedly started near the staircase of the interior design coaching centre and quickly spread to the top two floors of the commercial building called Takshashila Arcade in the Sarthana area of the city, officials said. About 50 or 60 people were inside the building when the fire broke out, they added. Some were expecting their Class 12 results today, IANS reported.

“There was smoke. I did not know what to do. I took the ladder and first helped the children get out of the place. I managed to save 8-10 people. Later I managed to rescue two more students,” said an eyewitness.

He said that it took the fire brigade 40-45 minutes to reach the place despite the fire station being just 2 km away from the building. The father of a girl rescued from the building also questioned their response time. “My daughter was inside the building when the fire broke out. The fire brigade from the fire station, which is not more than 2 km away, took almost 45 minutes to come. Even though my daughter got saved, she is in a state of trauma,” Paresh Patel, father of the rescued girl, was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Another witness, Ajay Patel, whose office is opposite the building that caught fire, said the casualty could have reduced had the fire brigade come prepared. “The pressure of their pipe was too low to douse the flame,” he said. 

Videos posted by witnesses on social media showed several students jumping out of windows on the top floor of the four-storey building to escape the blaze. Most of the students are said to be between the ages of 15 and 21. The fire was reportedly triggered by a short circuit.

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has ordered an investigation and announced financial help of 4 lakh each to the families of students who died in the tragedy.

“Twenty people have lost their lives in the tragedy in spite of our rescue efforts. Students of around 20 years of age were trapped in the coaching centre when a fire broke out in the stairway,” Mr Rupani said.

“We have asked the Urban Development and Urban Housing Department Principal Secretary, Mukesh Puri to immediately investigate and submit a report upon the matter. State Government will provide Rs. 4 lakh financial help to families of kids who died,” he added.

Madhya Pradesh: The police said five men have been arrested from Seoni city, 350 km from state capital Bhopal, after they thrashed four people for allegedly carrying beef

A man is thrashed by a group for allegedly carrying beef in Madhya Pradesh’s Seoni city
BHOPAL: 

A Muslim couple and two men were thrashed by a group for allegedly carrying beef in an autorickshaw at a village in Madhya Pradesh. In a video of the incident shot by an eyewitness on a mobile phone, the woman was seen being hit repeatedly with a slipper on her head, covered with a piece of cloth, as she curled up on the gravel and took the blows in silence from the attacker who was heard yelling at her, “Jai Shri Ram”. The three men were also tied to a tree one by one and thrashed by the group.

The police said five men have been arrested from Seoni city, 350 km from state capital Bhopal.

“The video is four days old and four people have been arrested. They have been sent to jail by a local court. One more accused has been arrested. He will appear in court today,” local police officer Lalit Shakyavar said.

One of the accused, Shubham Singh, who calls himself a member of “Ram Sena”, posted the video on his Facebook account on May 23; he deleted it later. In a photo he uploaded in April, he is seen standing next to BJP parliamentarian and Malegaon blasts accused Pragya Thakur and a group of men.

A man is thrashed for allegedly carrying beef in Madhya Pradesh’s Seoni

On May 22, the three men and the woman, all Muslims, were travelling in an autorickshaw when they were intercepted by the group of vigilantes, who accused them of carrying beef, the police said.

Instead of informing the police, the men took matters on their own hands and held the passengers hostage and interrogated them, witnesses said.

In the video, the group is heard chanting “Jai Shri Ram” as they landed blows after blows on the men who were tied to a tree. One of them is untied and pushed to the ground as more sticks landed on his body, the video shows.

People who gathered about where the beatings happened said no one called the police when the incident was unfolding.COMMENT

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti condemned the incident. “Horrified to see cow vigilantes thrash an innocent Muslim with such impunity in MP. Hope Kamal Nath takes swift action against these goons,” she tweeted.

Given Trump’s relentless focus on trade issues, India’s new government will need to figure out how to put the trade relationship on a positive footing, a former White House official said.

WASHINGTON: Eminent Indian experts in the US believe that the next Indian government to be formed after the declaration of the election results on May 23 faces crucial foreign policy decisions, particularly in the economic realm.

“No matter who forms the next government, India faces crucial foreign policy decisions particularly in the economic realm,” Alyssa Ayres of the Council on Foreign Relations told media.

Author of the book “Our time has come: How India is making its place in the world”, Ayres, who served in the previous Obama Administration, said although the US-India relationship has made solid strides across governments in defence and security, there are increased tensions on the trade and economic front.

“I would also expect to see increased attention in the United States (particularly among members of Congress) to issues of religious freedom in India, especially given the tenor of the elections these past few weeks,” Ayres said.

In an op-ed titled “Troubles Aplenty: Foreign Policy Challenges for the Next Indian Government”, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Ashley Tellis stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who the exit polls predicted to be reelected, will have to confront serious external challenges both around India’s periphery and farther beyond.

“If India is to realise its great power ambitions in the decades to come, the next government will have to accelerate economic reforms domestically, strengthen India’s institutions, preserve its constitutional ethos and protect the nation’s internal cohesion, all of which have floundered dangerously in recent years,” Tellis wrote.

Associate professor of practice and fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies Joshua White asserted that though there are many things the new government can and should do to move beyond its election-induced foreign policy “lethargy” of the previous year, economic reforms are arguably the most vital.

A former White House and Pentagon official under the previous Obama Administration, White believes that with the partial exception of Vice-President Mike Pence, the new Indian government will find itself lacking ‘through no fault of its own’ effective high-profile champions in the Trump administration, and will be forced to engage an American policymaking apparatus dominated by trade hawks, who see the relationship in narrow transactional terms.

“While policy experts in Washington have largely assumed that Prime Minister Modi’s cautious foreign policy turn has been a product of his election imperatives, there is a growing anxiety that President Trump may have, in more fundamental ways, prompted New Delhi to question the assumptions that undergird deeper US-India alignment,” White told media.

Whoever comes to power will face a multitude of foreign policy challenges that are only growing in number and complexity, noted Anish Goel, a senior fellow at the New America think-tank.

“First and foremost is the relationship with the United States. Given President Trump’s relentless focus on trade issues, the new government will need to figure out how to put the trade relationship on a positive footing, and at the very least prevent any disagreements on trade from overwhelming the other more positive aspects of the strategic partnership,” Goel, a former White House official under the Obama and Bush administrations, told media.

This is complicated by the fact that the relationship will need to be balanced against India’s ongoing interactions with Russia and Iran.

Both countries represent strategic threats to the United States, yet remain vital trading partners for India, he said.

Beyond these global power politics, India will face challenges within its own neighbourhood, Goel said.

While tensions with Pakistan are perpetually simmering, they are even more heightened at the moment because the after-effects of the Pulwama-Balakot crisis have not been fully resolved and continue to linger, he added.

“As the United States looks for an exit ramp from Afghanistan, India-Pakistan relations will take on even greater importance. In addition, Sri Lanka has flared up as an unexpected regional challenge for India. After nearly a decade of relative peace on the island, the Easter Sunday terrorist bombings highlighted how terrorism can take root in the region,” Goel said.

“And finally, India must reckon with China,” the former White House official said in response to a question.

The world’s attention may be focused on US-China relations at the moment, but this doesn’t mean that India-China issues are not serious and prevalent.

“China’s increasing assertiveness will continue to cause concern in New Delhi. India has already expressed its displeasure with the Belt Road Initiative, but the reality is that the project is moving forward. The question now becomes what is India going to do in response,” Goel said.

According to Tellis, at a time when India’s external environment has grown more precarious because of the weakening liberal international order, China’s continuing ascendancy and assertiveness, and the prevailing capriciousness in Washington, continued stumbles in New Delhi will end up being cumulatively costly and will subvert India’s larger ambitions even more consequentially.

“Today, when India’s claims to exceptionalism will not suffice to either protect its security or to increase its influence, its missteps within will have outsized impact abroad,” he warned.

PTI

Commander-in-chief of Indian Army’s Northern Command, Lt General Ranbir Singh, on Monday confirmed that the Indian Army had undertaken a surgical strike in September 2016.

“A few days ago DGMO said in a reply to an RTI that the first surgical strike happened in September 16′, I don’t want to go into what political parties say, they’ll be given an answer by government. What I told you is a statement of fact,” Lt General Ranbir Singh said.

Indian Army commandos had conducted surgical strikes deep into Pakistani territory across the Line of Control(LoC) on September 29th, 2016 to destroy terrorist launchpads. The strikes were in response to the attack on a military base in Uri on September 18 in which 17 Army soldiers had lost their lives.

Addressing a press conference, Ranbir Singh added that Balakot air strikes in Februrary were a  “major achievement”.

“Air strikes by IAF on Balakot terrorist infrastructure was a major achievement, wherein our aircraft went deep into enemy territory and struck terror launchpads. Pakistanis carried out air operations the following day, however, they were given a befitting reply,” he said.

Lt General Ranbir Singh also informed that the Army was able to neutralise 86 terrorists during various operations, with 20 apprehended. “We’ve also been able to bring back many of them to the mainstream,” he said.

The Northern Command chief, however, added that locals in Kashmir joining militancy “remains a matter of concern”. He asserted that Pakistan feels “absolutely starved” because of effective counter infiltration grid of the Indian Army.

“However, that realization is coming in the youth and people of Kashmir that we do not want to become fodder by the Pakistani agencies and various inimical elements, who want to promote terrorism and violence in J&K,” he said.

“I am sure with the help of all the stakeholders we will be able to arrest this trend in the times to come as we are doing now,” he added.

“Successful infiltration from the Line of Control(LoC) is virtually becoming very difficult. Therefore, for them to continue with this militancy, they want that the local content should be increased,” he said.

Indian Army commandos had conducted surgical strikes deep into Pakistani territory across the LoC on September 29th, 2016 to destroy terrorist launchpads.

India on Thursday handed over two Mi 24 attack helicopters to Afghan defence minister Asadullah Khalid at the Kabul Air Force base.

Indian envoy to Afghanistan Vinay Kumar handed over the helicopters. The helicopters are replacement of the four attack helicopters gifted previously by India to Afghanistan in 2015.

A release by the Indian mission in Afghanistan said, “helicopters shall boost the capability of the Afghan Air Force” and enhance the “effectiveness of the Afghan national fefence and security force in combating the scrouge of terrorism” 

During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Afghanistan on 25th December 2016, New Delhi had gifted four Mi 25 attack helicopters to the Afghan Air Force. It was during this visit PM Modi had inaugurated the Afghan Parliament, which was built by India.

Former Indian envoy to Afghanistan, Amar Sinha speaking to WION on the development said, “India’s supply of two more Mi 24 helicopters is in line with our policies and commitments to Afghanistan.”

Explaining further Sinha said, “It is also a symbol of trilateral cooperation with Belarus as the third country which made these available for use by ANSF”

Amar Sinha was the Indian ambassador to Afghanistan in 2016 when the four Mi 25 attack helicopters were gifted to the landlocked South Asian country.

India is currently providing assistance to Afghan National Defence and Security forces (ANSF) by training the personnel and in the past has trained Afghan pilots as well.

Agencies