BJP activist's murder: CM Bommai expresses confidence about nabbing killers at the earliest
Bengaluru, Aug 1: Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday said investigation is on in connection with the murder of a BJP youth wing leader in Dakshina Kannada district last week, which had sparked outrage, as he expressed confidence about nabbing the culprits at the earliest.
He said the case will be officially handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) soon and added, however its officials have already started gathering preliminary information.
"Police have been given a free hand and the investigation is progressing in the case, at the earliest killers will be found," Bommai said.
Speaking to reporters here, he said, in two to three days the case will be officially handed over to the NIA.
"The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act has to be invoked, that process is on, technical and paper works are being done, at the earliest it will be handed over. NIA has been informed informally and few of its officials are already gathering preliminary information from Kerala and Mangaluru," he added.
A 32-year old zilla Bharatiya Yuva Morcha committee member Praveen Nettar was hacked to death by unidentified motorbike-borne assailants on July 26 night at Bellare in Sullia taluk in Dakshina Kannada district, which had sparked outrage.
Two persons with suspected links with the Popular Front of India (PFI) were arrested by Karnataka police in connection with the murder on July 28.
Amid criticism against him for skipping from visiting the houses of Masood (18) who was murdered in Bellare recently and Mohammed Fazil (23) who was hacked to death at Surathkal recently, when he called on the family of murdered BJP leader Praveen Nettar, Bommai said, "I will surely visit in the days to come."
JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy and a delegation of Congress leaders have visited the houses of all the three deceased.
The Chief Minister who is visiting Koppal district on Monday said, he will review and do a spot infection for the development of 'Anjanadri betta' (Anjanadri hill), considered to be the birthplace of Lord Hanuman, for which the government has already announced Rs 100 crore, and will be attending various other programmes.
"For now we will begin the work to provide facilities to tourists at Anjanadri betta, there is some land acquisition that needs to be done, we will do it and then begin the major works," he said.
The Chief Minister said he will be holding two key meetings, one-to take stock of the situation and gather information regarding damages caused due to recent rains in the state, and the second regarding monkeypox with the Health Minister and department officials, to decide on precautionary measures that need to be taken.
Bommai also said that the BJP is planning regional and district-wise conventions of the party in the days to come.
These conventions are part of BJP's preparations in the run-up to the 2023 Assembly polls.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Op Sindoor demonstrated India's progression towards 'domain jointness,' says Army Chief
Bengaluru (PTI): Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi on Thursday said Operation Sindoor demonstrated India's progression towards "domain jointness" and called the military offensive carried out inside Pakistani territory a "defining case study" of operational significance of integration.
In May last year, India had launched a military response targeting terror launchpads in Pakistan post the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 Indian tourists.
"Operation Sindoor was India's most powerful tool of progression towards domain jointness. But we need to achieve domain integration and fusion," General Dwivedi said.
He was addressing the "Ran Samvad" forum on "Land Forces visualisation of Multi Domain Operation (MDO)," here.
The army chief also highlighted the creation of an information warfare organisation and a psychological defence division following Operation Sindoor.
He said, "15 per cent of our effort was on managing the disinformation campaign."
He cautioned, however, that key challenges remain, particularly in synchronising operations across strategic, operational and tactical levels and addressing the growing prevalence of hybrid or grey-zone warfare.
"These are typically below the conventional military threshold, with the goal to exploit adversary vulnerability," he said, adding that non-kinetic operations are increasingly taking precedence.
"Operation Sindoor was India's most powerful tool of progression towards domain jointness. But we need to achieve domain integration and fusion," he said.
The Chief of Army Staff said his visualisation of MDO is not of six domains operating in parallel but all of them "in constant dynamic interaction where the weight shifts and the lead changes".
The Army chief stressed that modern warfare is no longer confined to geographical boundaries or single-service dominance, but is instead defined by continuous interaction across domains, stakeholders and levels of conflict.
"We are living through a dispersed, undeclared, multi-theatre, multi-domain war of our times. The question is not whether domains interact, it is how the interface is orchestrated across the battle space," he said.
General Dwivedi drew a distinction between land domain and land forces, explaining that while the former refers to the operational space, the latter represents the actors, comprising all six domains—land, air, maritime, cyber, space and cognitive—operating in a shared environment.
He underlined that these domains are no longer siloed but function through dynamic synergy.
Elaborating on the evolving battlefield, General Dwivedi noted that MDO has transformed warfighting into a layered, three-dimensional construct.
"In MDO, the battlefield is no longer a line on a map. It's a 3D -- cyber effects shaping the cognitive space, space assets cueing targets, and electronic warfare contesting every frequency simultaneously," he said.
He emphasised that commanders must develop cross-domain situational awareness from the tactical to strategic level.
Highlighting the operational significance of integration, General Dwivedi referred to Operation Sindoor as a "defining case study".
"It was a ground intelligence network coupled with cyber and EW (electronic warfare) inputs that gave the joint army-air force targeting, while the navy's repositioning shaped the strategic calculus simultaneously. No single domain decided the operation," General Dwivedi added.
He described such mutually enabling actions as the essence of MDO.
The Army Chief observed that while domains like cyber, space and cognitive operations benefit from centralised control, land warfare continues to rely on decentralised execution, creating a complex and adaptive system that must be aligned through central intent and technological integration.
On capability development, he said the Indian Army is transitioning steadily from concept to execution under a structured transformation roadmap.
He pointed to dedicated MDO war-gaming exercises since 2024 and the joint doctrine issued in August 2025 as milestones that have provided a unified operational framework across the three services for the first time.
General Dwivedi detailed several structural reforms underway, including the operationalisation of integrated battle groups, Rudra brigades, drone units, electronic warfare formations and cyber operations nodes.
He further underscored the importance of the "three Is" —integration, informatisation and intelligentisation—driven by technology but anchored in human decision-making.
"The human must remain in the loop exercising the judgment," he asserted.
The Army Chief emphasised the need for leadership transformation in the digital age.
"Commanders must evolve into techno-commanders, to build a force that does not know where one domain ends and another begins," he said.
Outlining the future roadmap, he identified "six Ds" shaping the MDO environment—dispersion, democratisation and diffusion among them—leading to imperatives such as diversification of assets, delegation of command and distributed response.
He called for a shift from "domain silos to domain fusion", describing a six-stage progression from domain purity to complete integration.
