Harinder Baweja anchors special projects for Hindustan Times. She has been a journalist for three decades and has focussed on covering conflict zones, including Kashmir, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Articles by Harinder Baweja
'I admire Sonia Gandhi for making a mark in India'
The Sharifs have returned to the stately official residence after a long gap of 14 years and memories of the 1999 coup return with a gush. Maryam Sharif, the young heir to the Sharif clan, shares her views on Pakistan, democracy, dictatorship and dynasty with Harinder Baweja.
Updated on Jun 09, 2013 09:40 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja
Imran Khan wants to do a Nitish Kumar in Pakistan
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar will be happy to hear this. Imran Khan, the new force in Pakistani politics, who has formed a provincial government in the most terror-struck region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), wants to model governance Nitish-style. Harinder Baweja reports.
Updated on Jun 09, 2013 09:02 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja, Lahore
MFN couldn’t come into effect because of LoC tensions: Khar
The Pakistan Cabinet had signed off on granting India the contentious Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status in January this year but it was not operationalised because of the beheading of Indian army soldiers on the line of control.
Updated on Jun 07, 2013 12:03 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja
Sharif takes oath amid slogans for democracy
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was administered the oath of office for the record third time, at a glittering ceremony at the Aiwan-e-Sadr by President Asif Ali Zardari.
Updated on Jun 06, 2013 02:19 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja, Islamabad
Nawaz Sharif braces for bouncers in third innings
The 62-year-old who will take oath as Pak PM today is acutely conscious of the road ahead. The expectations are scary and the issues at hand – terrorism, price rise, unavailability of gas and 12 to 14 hour power cuts – are all very complex. Harinder Baweja reports.
Updated on Jun 05, 2013 12:02 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja, Islamabad
The dark side of a very red moon
The Bastar tragedy proves that our paramilitary forces and our adivasis are both hunters and the hunted. Harinder Baweja writes.
Updated on Jun 02, 2013 10:49 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja
‘It’s not as if we abducted Sreesanth’
Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar, an avid cricket watcher himself has now switched off the game and says he’s stopped watching the Indian T20 League ever since the force busted the spot-fixing racket and arrested three Rajasthan Royal players. Excerpts from an interview:
Updated on May 29, 2013 12:51 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja, New Delhi
Mistakes all along
Former top cop KPS Gill, 76, best known for his fight against Punjab insurgency, was handpicked and sent to Chhattisgarh in 2006 as chief minister Raman Singh’s advisor. Seven years later, the security strategist reveals stunning details to Harinder Baweja of how the chief minister reacted to his plans of taking on the naxals.
Updated on May 28, 2013 10:35 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja
Mistakes all along
Former top cop KPS Gill, 76, was handpicked and sent to Chhattisgarh in 2006 as chief minister Raman Singh’s advisor. Seven years later he reveals stunning details to Harinder Baweja of how the chief minister reacted to his plans of taking on the naxals
Updated on May 28, 2013 12:08 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja, New Delhi
Sreesanth wanted half of Rs 40-lakh in advance
Fast bowler S Sreesanth, who was arrested on Wednesday night in Mumbai charges of spot-fixing, had demanded 50% advance of the Rs. 40-lakh payment from the mediator. Harinder Baweja reports.More cricketers, matches under scanner
Updated on May 18, 2013 08:55 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja, New Delhi
'We will not allow Kargil, 26/11, terror from Pak soil'
In his first interview to an Indian newspaper after winning the general elections, Nawaz Sharif, reached out to India on Monday, promising that he would not allow his country to export terror. Harinder Baweja reports.
Updated on May 14, 2013 08:55 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja, New Delhi
Can India clamp down on terror?
Most security experts point out that India’s counter terrorism strategy is flawed because it lacks a security mindset, unlike America. Harinder Baweja reports.
Updated on May 11, 2013 11:04 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja
Did India miss chance to get Sarabjit Singh safe?
In what is now being seen as a costly miss, India did not even try and negotiate a swap-deal for Chishty and Sarabjit. Chishty, a Pakistani virologist sentenced to life in a murder case was finally granted clemency by the Indian state on humanitarian grounds. Harinder Baweja reports.
Updated on May 03, 2013 09:14 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja, New Delhi
Army to have women officers as ADCs
In a first, the Army will soon have women officers in key, high profile posts. Chief of Army Staff General Bikram Singh has issued orders to appoint women officers as aide-de-camps (ADCs) to army commanders. Two Army commanders are retiring in June and their successors will work with the women ADCs.
Updated on Apr 30, 2013 01:20 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja, New Delhi
It's always crouching India, brazen Chinese dragon
Unlike with Pakistan, when PM Manmohan Singh bluntly said 'it cannot be business as usual' soon after two army jawans were killed, one of them beheaded, in a cross-border raid, timidity and extreme caution marks India's response vis-a-vis China.
Updated on Apr 24, 2013 08:33 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja, New Delhi
India, China caught in a bitter face-off
The Indian army has moved an infantry regiment specialising in mountain warfare to Ladakh’s Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) sector where the Chinese army has intruded into Indian territory and set up a tent post. Harinder Baweja reports. Indian taking every step to protect its interests: Antony
Updated on Apr 23, 2013 08:53 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja, New Delhi
States default on Central funds to upgrade police
Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, both struck by terror this year are amongst the states that have not spent funds allocated to them by the Centre under a scheme aimed specifically at modernisation of state police forces. While 16 were injured in Wednesday’s blast near the BJP office in Bengaluru, 16 were killed when two blasts ripped through Hyderabad’s Dilsukhnagar area on February 21.According to data available with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Andhra Pradesh tops the list of states with an unspent amount of R54 crore of a total central allocation of R115 crore. Similarly, Karnataka has an unspent amount of R3.85 crore for the year 2009-10.“It’s a mindset problem,’’ said a home ministry officer, adding, “We have to keep sending reminders to the states imploring them to utilise the funds.”According to information on the scheme, publicised on the MHA’s website, “The Central Government is supplementing the efforts of the state governments to improve the functioning of the police force and equip them adequately with the latest technology for meeting the emerging challenges to public order and internal security in the form of terrorism, naxalism, insurgency, increase in crimes, etc.”The objective behind the central assistance is aimed at reducing the dependence of the states on the army and the paramilitary forces. But the utilisation certificate for the same period shows that Assam, dependent on the army and the paramilitary, for its fight against the insurgents also has an unspent amount of R11 crore of a total allocation of R61 crore.The same is true for Naxal-ridden states. While Chhattisgarh has spent its entire allocation, Jharkhand had not spent R5.19 crore of R33.49 crore. Similarly, Bihar had an unspent amount of R18 crore of its total allocation of R59.35 crore in 2009-10, Harinder Baweja reports.
Updated on Apr 19, 2013 01:46 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja, New Delhi
Locked and loaded: Malik gifts Shinde vintage gun
Believe it or not, Pakistan’s interior minister Rehman Malik, who visited India in December last year, gifted a non-firing vintage gun to his counterpart Sushil Kumar Shinde, reports Harinder Baweja.
Updated on Apr 15, 2013 01:14 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja, New Delhi
Pakistan's Rehman Malik gifted Shinde vintage gun
Pak’s interior minister Rehman Malik, who visited India in Dec, 2012, gifted a non-firing vintage gun to his counterpart Sushilkumar Shinde – a curious gift, especially since LeT chief Hafiz Saeed and terrorism were high on the bilateral agenda. Harinder Baweja reports.
Updated on Apr 14, 2013 11:50 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja, New Delhi
Tytler case: witness tried to contact CBI many times
A day after a Delhi court reprimanded CBI for not recording statements of at least three such witnesses who were willing to give their testimonies to the investigating agency, HT tracked down a US-based witness in the Jagdish Tytler case.
Updated on Apr 12, 2013 09:40 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja, New Delhi
Gaps in Delhi cops’ claims on Liyaqat
On Monday, when MHA asked NIA to probe Liyaqat Shah case, HT accessed the input shared by the IB stating that a former terrorist would be coming via the Kathmandu route with his family in Kashmir, Harinder Baweja reports. JK govt had informed home ministry on Liyaqat's return
Updated on Mar 26, 2013 10:14 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja, New Delhi
He’s got off quite lightly
As ‘Munnabhai’, Dutt endeared himself to many. But now, as he faces the prospect of returning to jail for his role in the 1993 Mumbai blasts, why is there a clamour for mercy, a sudden expansion of the ‘… but he is a nice guy’ brigade and demand for pardon?
Updated on Mar 22, 2013 09:32 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja
Lashkar revives itself, Valley fears more attacks
The Pakistan-based LeT, which was lying dormant in J&K, is in a revival mode after the hanging of Afzal Guru. Expect more attacks, is the message emerging from the wireless chatter being monitored by intelligence agencies. Harinder Baweja reports.Pak militant arrested for CRPF camp attack
Updated on Mar 15, 2013 09:18 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja, New Delhi
‘You don’t have to wear the pants’
Young girls are speaking the language of empowerment. Men and women are different, not better or worse, says celebrated actor and activist Shabana Azmi. After 16/12 rape, sexual harrassment biggest concern
Updated on Mar 03, 2013 01:50 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja
Andhra police failed to act on specific intel
A team of Andhra Police came to Delhi three months ago and interrogated for days the two Indian Mujahideen (IM) men, who scouted the Hyderabad area rocked by two successive blasts on Thursday, but failed to act on the information they got, HT has learnt.
Updated on Feb 23, 2013 12:56 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja, New Delhi
Omar faults Delhi on Afzal hanging, scared of impact
Conceding that the death sentence had 'given Afzal the tag of martyr for Kashmiris to rally around', the J&K CM told HT: “Only a fool will suggest the hanging will not increase alienation.” Harinder Baweja reports. Countdown began in Dec ‘12 | Last rites await govt nod | Pak trip becomes bone of contention
Updated on Feb 11, 2013 01:50 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja, New Delhi
Centre sought Omar’s opinion 10 days ago
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah was taken into confidence on Afzal Guru’s hanging 10 days ago, highly-placed government sources told HT. Abdullah, who met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde in Delhi on January 31, was asked what fallout the hanging would have in his state.
Updated on Feb 10, 2013 01:02 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja, New Delhi
'Lax coordination among agencies in Maoist areas'
IAF chief Air Marshal NAK Browne reacted sharply to the home ministry's objections raised after an injured police officer was abandoned by IAF men during a anti-naxal operation recently. Harinder Baweja reports.
Updated on Feb 08, 2013 11:47 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Harinder Baweja, New Delhi
‘Didn’t like photos of young girls singing, dancing. This is Kashmir.’
“I didn’t like the photographs of young girls singing and dancing. This is Kashmir,” Tariq Majid Khan, who is pursuing a masters degree in English literature, told investigators soon after he was arrested for intimidating and forcing Kashmir's only all-girl rock band into silence. Toufiq Rashid & Harinder Baweja report.
Updated on Feb 08, 2013 05:03 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Toufiq Rashid & Harinder Baweja, Srinagar/ New Delhi
Left behind by IAF crew, cop pleaded for help
The chilling call for help from a head constable - abandoned by an air force crew after their chopper made an emergency landing in Chhattisgarh - could be heard across police stations in the forested area in Sukma district. Ejaz Kaiser and Harinder Baweja report.
Updated on Feb 01, 2013 08:15 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ejaz Kaiser and Harinder Baweja, Raipur/new Delhi