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The delicate ceasefire between the Sri Lankan Government
and the LTTE held creating a fragile peace.
Though the leadership on both sides appeared
to be talking past each other at the table,
a war weary population on both sides got a
much-needed respite. To most Indians, the
idea of the suicide prone LTTE talking peace
appeared incongruous, but little captures
the mood in LTTE ranks as this photo of some
cadre staring wistfully across the expanse
of a cemetery in Jaffna filled with the
numbered graves of LTTE soldiers killed in
the conflict.
Image Source: www.yahoo.com
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The
Indian Navy paid a visit to Shanghai this
year. The visit caught most observers by
surprise but the Chinese Navy seemed quite
at ease with the visitors. In the photo we
see the two Indian ships parked on the quay
in Shanghai harbor.
Image
Source: www.yahoo.com
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Diplomatically
2003 was an active year, early in the year
President Khatami of Iran was the chief
guest at the Republic Day celebration.
Shortly after his visit rumors floated in
regional capitals about an Indo-Iranian
strategic accord. The photo shows President
Khatami meeting President Kalam, Prime
Minister Vajpayee and Minister External
Affairs Yashwant Sinha on the Rashtrapati
Bhavan grounds.
Image
Source: www.pmindia.nic.in
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A visit to China by Prime Minister Vajpayee enabled him
to meet several top Chinese leaders.
Relations between the rising stars of the
`New Asia’ were strained after 1998 but
the high level visits created a much-desired
thaw. The photo shows Prime Minister
Vajpayee sitting next to the Chinese leader
Hu Jintao.
Image Source: www.pmindia.nic.in
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Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited Delhi in 2003. The
visit was seen as a tectonic shift in
Indo-Israeli ties, which hitherto had been
subject to the greatest deal of caution. The
visit sparked all sorts of speculation in
Pakistan about the nature of India-Israel
cooperation and created an atmosphere of
much suspicion in Middle Eastern capitals
but in India itself, the Prime Minister
Sharon was well received. The photo shows
Prime Minister Sharon laying flowers at the
Mahatma Gandhi Memorial at Rajghat.
Image Source: www.gettyimages.com
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To
assuage anxiety in the Middle East
especially among India’s long time friends
in the Arab world, Prime Minister Vajpayee
mounted a series of high level visits to
major capitals in the region. The most high
profile of these was the visit to Syria
where he joined President Bashir Asad in
inaugurating a biotechnology center (see
photo). Prime Minister Vajpayee’s visit
went a long way in checking Pakistani
mischief in region.
Image
Source: www.pmindia.nic.in
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A
high level visit to Russia helped cement
ties between the two countries. The year
also saw a gradual increase in defense
related acquisitions from Russia and an
expansion in Indo-Russian cooperation in
several sectors. Considerable cooperation on
the international stage between India and
Russia was also visible.
Image
Source: www.pmindia.nic.in
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US
led security forces in Iraq struggled to
keep control over the fractious Iraqi
population. The pace and intensity of
terrorist attacks increased. As the body
count on the US side mounted, the US forces
strengthened their efforts to locate and
arrest Saddam Hussein. Their work paid off,
and in late Dec 2003, Saddam Hussein was
arrested from a small farmhouse near Tikrit.
The arrest itself was a major morale booster
in the US, however it had little direct
impact on the Iraq Survey Group's search for
Iraqi WMD, or on counter terrorist efforts
in Iraq.
Image
Source: US Department of Defense.
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The
Indian Air Force saw the arrival of its much
awaited air-air refueling aircraft. Pictured
here with Su-30 MKI variants these aircraft
significantly change the complexion of the
air war in subcontinent as they lend the IAF
almost infinite range.
Image
Source: www.bharat-rakshak.com
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The
mighty little Dhruv was also a star
performer in the Aerospace sector last year.
Dhruv (Advanced Light Helicopter) variants
multiplied and orders began to arrive at
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) from
other countries.
Image
Source: www.bharat-rakshak.com
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The year saw a major expansion in trade ties to ASEAN
countries. This had long been envisioned in
India’s `Look East’ policy, but the high
level visit to the ASEAN summit in October
of 2003 really pushed things along.
Image Source: www.pmindia.nic.in
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The most intriguing visit was the sudden arrival of
Maulana Fazlur Rehman and a delegation of
the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA). The
delegation visited Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband and
met several major functionaries of the
Government of India. The exact purpose of
the visit remained a mystery.
Image Source: www.gettyimages.com
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There
was considerable flux in Afghanistan as the
various political groups attempted to come
to an understanding on nature of
Afghanistan’s new constitution. Though
Afghanistan was buffeted by severe waves of
terrorist violence caused by `resurgent
Taliban’ operating from Pakistan, the
Afghan Loya Jirga continued to work on
solving differences through dialogue and
discussion.
Image
Source: www.gettyimages.com
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Sustained security operations led to incremental
improvements in the security situation on
the ground in Jammu and Kashmir. President
Kalam was able to visit the famed Hazratbal
Shrine. This was the first visit of this
nature by an Indian leader in a long time.
Image Source: www.gettyimages.com
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Security
forces in the J&K state scored a major
victory over terrorists in the Surankote
region. In an operation code-named Sarp
Vinash, elements of CIF(R) and CIF(V) were
able to capture a major terrorist base in
the Pir Panjal Range. The photo shows Maj.
Gen. Hardev Lidder talking to press persons
after the operation had just concluded.
Image
Source: Sainik Samachar (Ministry of Defence,
Govt. of India)
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The Pakistan sponsored proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir
also felled many an Indian. A prominent loss
this year was the famed Ikhwani leader,
Kukka Parrey. Parrey was killed by unknown
persons after he left his house to meet
someone. Parrey was the last surviving
member of a group of five major militant
leaders that had laid down their arms before
the Jammu and Kashmir government and joined
the counter-terrorist efforts. The
assasination of Kukka Parrey was seen as a
blow to the Ikhwan program which seeks to
rehabilitate militants into security related
tasks.
Image
Source: www.gettyimages.com
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Terrorism
was very much on peoples’ minds as two car
bombs detonated at the Gateway of India
landmark and in Zhaveri Bazaar in Mumbai.
Though the blast occurred in crowded areas
causing a high number of casualties, the
city’s emergency services were able to
cope with the crisis. The photo depicts a
few of the fifty or so people who died as a
result of their injuries lying in the triage
area of one of Mumbai’s hospitals.
Image
Source: www.gettyimages.com
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It
is very hard to come up with a set of images
that describes Pakistan in 2003. The
standard answer in most media outlets is to
come up with a photo of Musharraf and hope
for the best!
Despite
the difficult nature of the choice, the
authors settled on these images of sectarian
strife in Pakistan.
The
first image is from a morgue in Quetta in
the aftermath of a deadly suicide bombing of
a Shia Mosque. The suicide bombing was
supposedly carried out by the
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), a Sunni terrorist
group that has strong ties to Osama Bin
Laden's Al Qaida. The attack left fifty
people dead. This attack was only one in a
series of terrorist attacks carried out by
Sunni extremist groups against Shia targets.
Image
Source: www.gettyimages.com
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Our
second image from Pakistan, is the image of
the funeral of Maulana Azam Tariq. Maulana
Tariq was the head of the Sipaha Saheba
Pakistan (SSP), a Sunni Deobandi party that
is regarded in Pakistan as being the
fountainhead of anti Shia violence. The LeJ
headed by Riaz Basra was an offshoot of the
SSP.
Maulana
Azam Tariq's unmarked motorcade was ambushed
inside the high security zone in Islamabad
and in shower of bullets Maulana Tariq and
his companions were killed. The killing bore
the marks of a professional hit. Though
initially India was accused of having
committed this dastardly act, accusations
soon settled on the Shia leader Maulana
Sajad Ali Naqvi and parties from the
Islamist Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal also pointed
fingers at Pakistani Army. As sectarian
anger built up and rioting broke out, the
Pakistani Army arrested Maulana Sajad Ali
Naqvi and issued a number of threats to
extremist religious leaders. In this way
somehow the rioting ebbed and the blaze of
sectarian violence was stemmed.
The
rise and fall of Maulana Azam Tariq is but
one example of how the Pakistani Army
continues to play with fire inside Pakistan.
Image
Source: www.gettyimages.com
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As
the end of the year drew near the Iranian
town of Bam was shaken by a massive
earthquake that left tens of thousands dead.
To aid the Iranian authorities in a time of
need, the Indian Government asked the Indian
Armed Forces to launch a relief mission. The
Indian Armed Forces had the unfortunate task
of responding to a similar call from the
Indian town of Bhuj in 2002, and the tragedy
at Bam brought forth many a memory in
India.
Image
Source: www.yahoo.com
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