Indian Navy bolsters bilateral ties in Indonesia
The 44th edition of IND–INDO CORPAT between the Indian Navy and the Indonesian Navy is being conducted from July 13-21.
"India and Indonesia enjoy a close and friendly relationship covering a wide spectrum of activities and interactions. The 44th edition of IND-INDO CORPAT seeks to bolster the maritime cooperation between the two navies and forge strong bonds of friendship between India and Indonesia, in keeping with Government of India's vision MAHASAGAR - Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions," the Embassy of India in Jakarta posted on X.
As part of India's vision, the Indian Navy has been proactively engaging with the countries in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) towards enhancing regional maritime security. This has been through bilateral and multilateral exercises, Coordinated Patrols, Joint EEZ Surveillance, and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations.
India and Indonesia have been carrying out CORPATs twice a year since 2002, with an aim of keeping this vital part of the IOR safe and secure for commercial shipping, international trade and conduct of legitimate maritime activities. CORPATs help build understanding and interoperability between navies, and facilitate institution of measures to prevent and suppress Illegal Unreported Unregulated (IUU) fishing, drug trafficking, maritime terrorism, armed robbery and piracy. It further helps enhance the operational synergy by exchange of information for prevention of smuggling, illegal immigration and for conduct of Search and Rescue (SAR) operations at sea. India and Indonesia have traditionally enjoyed a close and friendly relationship covering a wide spectrum of activities and interactions.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, on his first State Visit to India, attended this year's Republic Day celebrations as the Chief Guest. The visit coincided with the 75th Anniversary of India-Indonesia diplomatic relations, a milestone that reflects the enduring friendship and deep-rooted historical ties between the two countries.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Subianto reaffirmed that India and Indonesia, as maritime neighbours and strategic partners, must continue to work to further deepen and broaden the defence cooperation to a robust one.
The Indonesian President welcomed India's interest in enhancing cooperation on maritime security, including its engagement with regional mechanisms to ensure the safety and security of sea lanes of communication. Both leaders also acknowledged the significance of collaborative efforts to achieve safe and secure sea lanes in the region. In this regard, they agreed that there needs to be constant communication to discuss enhancement of maritime safety.
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Time of India
42 minutes ago
- Time of India
Six kanwariyas killed as bus, truck collide in Deoghar
1 2 Dumka: Six kanwariyas, including three women, died while two dozen others sustained injuries of varying degrees when the bus they were travelling in crashed into a stationary truck at the Jamuniya turn under the Mohanpur police station of Deoghar district early on Tuesday morning. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, chief minister Hemant Soren and other dignitaries took to X to condole the deaths and to express wishes for speedy recovery to the injured. All deceased, except the driver identified as Subhash Turi (30) of Chakrama village under the Mohanpur police station of Deoghar district, belonged to different districts of neighbouring Bihar. The deceased were identified as Samada Devi (38), Suman Kumari (30), Durgavati Devi (45), Subhash Turi (30) (driver), Shivraj (17), and Devki Prasad (45). Eyewitness accounts said the collision, which took place at about 5 am, was so intense that the driver fell off the vehicle, which skidded for another 100 feet before hitting a pile of bricks kept along the roadside and coming to an abrupt halt. All the occupants of privately owned 32-seater bus were on their way to Basukinath, home to another famous Shiva temple in Dumka district, to pay offerings. They had boarded the vehicle from Deoghar after paying offerings at the Baba Baidyanath Dham.
India Today
6 hours ago
- India Today
Pahalgam massacre: India's pain, Pakistan's punishment
(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated May 5, 2025)Vinay Narwal, a 26-year-old lieutenant in the Indian Navy, and his wife, Himanshi, had been really looking forward to their dream honeymoon in idyllic Pahalgam after they failed to get a visa for Switzerland. They had flown into Kashmir soon after their wedding reception in Karnal, Haryana. The next day, on April 22, they joined hundreds of other tourists to visit the alpine meadows of Baisaran. 'We never thought this trip would turn into a nightmare,' recounted a dazed and teary-eyed Himanshi, her hands still adorned with henna and the bridal chura (bangles). 'I was eating bhelpuri with my husband,' she is heard telling locals in a video. 'A man came over and asked my husband if he was Muslim. When he said no, the man shot him dead.' Screams filled the meadow as 26 human lives were taken with that same suddenness, on that merest pretext, in the space of a few unending minutes. Soon after, a photographer captured the distraught Himanshi seated beside her slain husband with blood stains on her clothes, framing the horror for a nation. The next day, when Vinay's body was flown to his hometown for cremation, Himanshi broke down before his coffin, draped in the national flag. 'I pray that his soul is in peace, and he has the best time wherever he is,' she managed to say through her haunting, heart-wrenching scenes played out across the country as the coffins of the others slain in the Pahalgam attack came home for their last rites. The brutal killing of innocent tourists in Kashmir, the worst terror attack on civilians in the Valley in over two decades, forced Prime Minister Narendra Modi to cut short his official visit to Saudi Arabia and return to New Delhi. But not before posting a stern message on X: 'Those behind this heinous act will be brought to will not be spared! Their evil agenda will never succeed.' On his return, the prime minister immediately convened a session of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), which included home minister Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar and finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman. They were briefed about the cross-border linkages of the terror attack with Pakistan. THE INDIAN COUNTER The question then arose of what was to be done. A range of steps presented themselves as options before New Delhi—and each may finally find its own time and space. As an instantaneous punitive measure, foreign secretary Vikram Misri announced that the CCS had decided to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) of 1960 with immediate effect, until, as he put it, 'Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism.' The 65-year-old treaty, which has survived four wars between the two countries, allots the eastern rivers of the Indus system—the Sutlej, Beas and Ravi—for India's unrestricted use. Pakistan receives much of the waters from the western rivers—the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab. The treaty decrees that any move by New Delhi to alter the flow of the rivers through dams or other means needs to be negotiated with had threatened to revoke the IWT after the 2019 Pulwama attacks as well, but stopped short of executing the threat. It did reiterate its intention to do so in September 2024, though, when it sought a 'review and modification' of the treaty. However, by suspending the treaty now, with stringent clauses for reinstatement, India is shutting the door completely. The move holds serious implications for Pakistan's water security, especially in the populous and politically powerful provinces of Punjab and Sindh. While the suspension will not disrupt the current flow of water to Pakistan, any future unilateral steps by India, like building canals or dams to divert the water for its own use, could seriously affect the lower riparian regions downstream in Pakistan. Islamabad has already called India's action tantamount to an 'act of war'. One disadvantage for India is that while Pakistan's demand for Kashmir has so far been on religious grounds, any threat to its water supply could shift popular opinion in the country in favour of war over Kashmir. Meanwhile, Pakistan also restricted Indian access to its air space, and suspended the Simla Agreement of 1972 as addition to the IWT suspension, the CCS announced a series of other diplomatic sanctions, including the closure of the border check-post at Attari in Amritsar, the expulsion of defence attaches and their senior advisors in the Pakistani High Commission in Delhi, and the revocation of SAARC visas issued to Pakistani citizens. It also made it clear that more punitive measures would follow. At a public rally on April 24 in Madhubani in Bihar, the PM himself sent out a message intended for the world. Switching to English midway through his Hindi speech, he declared, 'Today, from the soil of Bihar, I say to the whole world, India will identify, trace and punish every terrorist and their backers. We will pursue them to the ends of the Earth. They will be punished beyond their imagination.'advertisementModi is sending out a clear signal to Pakistan that India will not hesitate to explore all options, including military force, to punish it for crossing a dangerous red line. Kanwal Sibal, former foreign secretary, believes that by choosing to suspend the IWT over exercising military power as in the past, India has sent out a powerful message that it is going to hit where it hurts. At the same time, Sibal reasons, 'It is a wrong time geopolitically and otherwise for India to get into a military conflict with Pakistan. We can talk about it to satisfy our emotions, but just when our growth story is becoming more credible, we will get deflected. We have also held that this is not an era for war, and dialogue and diplomacy are the way out. So, we would lose our credibility internationally.' Sibal notes that while India has viable military options, suspending the IWT will be more effective because water or the lack of it is a significant issue for Pakistan. 'It's a strategic blow to Pakistan.'advertisementOthers argue that punitive measures that have a slow burn, such as suspending the IWT, will not satisfy the Indian public, which is outraged at the brutal killing of their countrymen and wants the Modi government to avenge the attacks through military force. India had done exactly that after the terror attacks in Uri in 2016 and in Pulwama in 2019. In Uri, after four Pakistan-backed Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists stormed the Indian Army brigade unit on September 18, 2016, killing 19 soldiers, India retaliated strongly. Ten days later, Indian army commandos crossed the Line of Control (LoC) and conducted a series of retaliatory surgical strikes on militant launch-pads and camps, claiming to have killed over 150 militants. In 2019, after a suicide vehicle bomb attack by a JeM operative in Pulwama killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force men, India struck back by sending 12 Mirage 2000 jets into Pakistan territory and bombing the JeM camp in Balakot. It was the first time since the 1971 war that India had deployed its air force for a cross-border Tilak Devasher, a former senior officer of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and author of several books on Pakistan, says, 'Public opinion demands retribution and once you have set the bar so high after the Uri and Pulwama retaliatory strikes, the Modi government will have to act very decisively for people to feel reassured. What manner it should take is for the government to decide but, in this particular case, the more irrational you are, the more effective you are going to be.'While the Modi government has a range of kinetic (military) options, experts emphasise the need for clarity on objectives and outcomes. Lt Gen. Syed Ata Hasnain, who has served extensively in the Valley, says, 'Starting from a low calibration of letting the current ceasefire go up in flames, which to my mind will achieve nothing, we have a range of options.' Hasnain is clear that the response should go beyond just giving Pakistan a bloody jaw to appease public sentiment. 'We must be clear whether we are messaging Pakistan or the world about our capability. We upped the ante in Uri with surgical strikes and in Balakot with air strikes. Do we do both this time but confine it to terrorist hideouts as we did in the past, or do we expand the ambit and target the Pakistan army directly, which would amount to war? So, it is a question of calibration and what you want to achieve in the end.' THE TURMOIL IN PAKISTANTo calibrate and control the escalation ladder in response to such a strike, India must first understand Pakistan's internal dynamics, say experts. Especially what prompted it to launch such a major terror attack and the targets it chose, knowing India would retaliate. According to Sharat Sabharwal, a former high commissioner to Pakistan, the timing of the attack could not have been more strategic—US Vice President J.D. Vance was in India and Modi was on a bilateral visit to Saudi Arabia. An audacious attack was certain to grab worldwide attention and signal that Pakistan cannot be ignored. The other reason, Sabharwal believes, was to shatter the sense of normalcy ushered in first by the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019 and then the recent assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir. It was most evident in the return of tourists to the region, with J&K attracting 23 million visitors last year compared to 17 million in 2018. By targeting tourists in Pahalgam, Pakistan was not only hitting at this economic revival but also letting India, and the world, know that it remained very much a stakeholder in the Valley's the timing has as much to do with Pakistan's own failings, especially the growing disillusionment with its all-powerful army chief General Asim Munir and his ability to navigate the polycrisis in the country. The daring hijack of the Jaffar Express train by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) on March 11, in which 31 people, including 18 armed forces personnel, were killed, was a serious setback for Munir. The Pakistan army has long accused India of actively backing the Baloch rebels and many in the establishment see the Pahalgam attack as a forceful warning from Islamabad asking India not to meddle in its internal affairs. Meanwhile, Pakistan faces mounting pressure on its western front from the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). A Pashtun movement that wants to overthrow the Pakistan government and form an Islamic emirate, it is backed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. As Sibal notes, 'Pakistan created the Taliban in Afghanistan, was gleeful when it returned to power and, now, they are bombing each other. That is a strategic failure of policy.' SHOW OF SOLIDARITY: Kashmiri traders observe a candlelight vigil at Lal Chowk in Srinagar, Apr. 23. (Photo: AFP) On the political front, despite being in jail for various charges, Imran Khan continues to be Pakistan's most popular politician. In 2023, supporters of his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e Insaf (PTI), even stormed the house of the Lahore corps commander in protest. Munir responded with a harsh crackdown and also sacked PTI backers in the army, but considerable damage was done to the military's credibility. Meanwhile, the Shehbaz Sharif-led coalition government is seen as completely indebted to the army for its trouble is building with the infighting among the ruling coalition's main partners, the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) or PML(N), to which Shehbaz belongs, and its one-time arch-foe, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), of which President Asif Zardari is the co-chairperson. Differences between the two political frenemies came to a head recently over a canal project to supply Indus river water to Cholistan in southern Punjab. The PPP, which rules the Sindh province, complained that the project would deprive them of their share of water; its leader Bilawal Zardari Bhutto even threatened to pull out of the coalition if the issue was not resolved. In this situation, India's move to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty can exacerbate these divisions and prove an effective punitive measure that will give Pakistan there is any consolation for Pakistan, it is in the modest signs of recovery the economy is showing, helped in large part by the first few tranches of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s $7 billion bailout. In a positive sign, the country's GDP grew at 2.5 per cent last year; it was $337 billion in 2023 compared to India's $3.5 trillion. As Ajay Bisaria, former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan, puts it, 'The economy has moved out of the ICU but is still in the critical care ward. But it may sink again as, so far, there are no structural reforms to ensure sustained growth.' Munir seems to have extended his influence here as well, becoming a member of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) Shehbaz formed last July. Such a council, the Pakistan premier had argued, was necessary for 'a unified approach' to steer the country out of the economic crisis, as he mandated it to frame economic policies. Members of the army brass will be national coordinators for both the apex and the executive who took over as army chief in November 2022, has also ensured that he will continue for five years instead of three through a specially enabled legislation in Parliament last November. But with the army's credibility waning, especially after the train hijack by Baloch rebels and rising terror strikes across Pakistan by others, he is leveraging the Kashmir issue to deflect attention from the country's own internal crises. In a speech to the Overseas Pakistanis Convention in Islamabad on April 16, six days before the Pahalgam attack, Munir invoked Kashmir, saying, 'Our stance is absolutely clear, it (Kashmir) was our jugular vein, it will be our jugular vein, we will not forget it. We will not leave our Kashmiri brothers in their heroic struggle.' In the same speech, Munir also revived the two-nation theory and its continued relevance, which for Bisaria is reminiscent of the Islamic orthodoxy of General Zia-ul-Haq's reign in the 1980s. 'General Munir was basically trying to rally people around the flag and break Imran's support among overseas Pakistanis,' he says. 'He was also garnering support with the army and, by taking up the Kashmir cause, hoping to strengthen his internal position, besides bolstering the mullah-military alliance.' Experts see it as a key reason for Munir taking the huge gamble of escalating tensions with India and perhaps authorising the Pahalgam believes there were clear signs of Pakistan getting ready to attack. In the run-up to the strike, the establishment had issued strong statements accusing India of interference in Balochistan and warning of action against the militants and their backers. Despite a ceasefire at the LoC in place since 2021, there has been renewed volatility and border transgressions in recent weeks. Last year, too, ahead of the assembly election in J&K, Pakistan-backed militants had launched a series of terror strikes in the Jammu region, including the killing in Reasi of nine pilgrims travelling by bus. Another strike followed Omar Abdullah's swearing in as chief minister in October, when six migrants and a doctor were targeted in Ganderbal. Experts say security agencies should have been alert, particularly in a popular tourist location like Pahalgam, and beefed up presence in these areas. Ground forces in the Valley, therefore, need to analyse both the failure in intelligence as well as in what army calls 'area dominance' to prevent future attacks by Pakistan as India ups the ante. Lt Gen. Vinod Bhatia, former director general of military operations, stresses the need for an immediate and focused counterstrike. 'The security forces must first hunt out the four militants who carried out the attack and eliminate them,' he says. 'Time, surprise and space are the key elements in the military domain. Action has to be pre-emptive, pro-active and punitive. And a punitive strategy must be at a time and place of our choosing.' THE OPTIONS BEFORE INDIAAccording to a key military strategist, India should consider launching a multi-pronged offensive against Pakistan, one that spans the diplomatic, economic, military, political and informational domains. Given that the two countries had already expelled their respective high commissioners after the abrogation of Article 370, the current punitive action of reducing the staff strength of their missions is minimal. Two-way trade between the two countries is also a mere trickle, so there is not much India can do by way of economic India can do is to rally major powers to penalise Pakistan for backing terror groups, using global watchdog FATF (Financial Action Task Force) which monitors terror financing. That, in turn, can restrict Pakistan's access to international financial institutions such as the IMF. Sabharwal also advocates for covert options targeting high-value figures in Pakistan, including top leaders of the JeM and the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) while ensuring deniability. After all, it is The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy for the LeT, and the Peoples Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF), a front organisation of the JeM, that have claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam carnage. Pakistan's vulnerability to internal militants was evident when in 2009, local terror groups stormed the highly fortified General Headquarters of the army in Rawalpindi. They held armed forces personnel hostage for a while and killed a brigadier and a lieutenant, before the army killed the militants and regained has a broad range of options when it comes to overt punitive military action. According to Lt Gen. K.J.S. Dhillon, former GOC 15 Corps, Srinagar, 'The military has prepared area-specific and depth-specific options, ranging from shallow to deep strikes, involving single or tri-service operations. These are pre-planned, rehearsed, and ready for execution upon approval. The response will be strategic, timed and aimed at delivering a disproportionate, crushing retaliation to inflict significant pain on Pakistan.' Lt Gen. Deependra Singh Hooda, who led the 2016 surgical strikes in Uri as Northern Army commander, believes India can consider abandoning the existing LoC ceasefire agreement to begin with and launch surgical strikes on select targets. It could also deploy air force assets as it did in Balakot to hit terror infrastructure. According to the latest Indian intelligence reports, there are 42 active terrorist launch-pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) near the LoC, with 110-130 terrorists, including Pakistan nationals. Some strategists advocate a 'Balakot Plus' option, which would involve the use of India's short-range tactical ballistic missiles such as the Prithvi series and Pralay, the hypersonic Shaurya missile and the BrahMos cruise missile. All these systems are designed for battlefield use and can effectively strike strategic targets near the border. Hooda, though, cautions against the use of missiles given that Pakistan has a range of tactical missiles, both conventional and nuclear, and the situation could very rapidly escalate into a full-scale also warn against yielding to jingoistic demands by the political class to take back PoK. Military experts who have gamed the option say while India can capture a few features close to the LoC, seizing all of PoK could well be a three-year war as Russia is discovering with Ukraine. According to Hooda, 'It would be a long-term campaign, with the Pakistani deployment matching the Indian one on the LoC.' The problem may not end there either, he says. 'Once you occupy it, it's not as though the people living there would welcome India. You could end up with other problems, including insurgency.'Pakistan also remains a nuclear-armed state that has shunned the 'no first-use' doctrine. It would not hesitate to exercise the option if its territorial integrity is under threat. The risk of a nuclear war, therefore, remains high. As such, India's response must be calibrated, encompassing strategic restraint and precision. In another significant turning point, much of the Valley showed no support for Pakistan's attack on the innocent tourists in Pahalgam. Political parties across the spectrum universally condemned the act; many joined public protests to express their outrage. With the public and political sentiment in its favour, India must exercise even greater circumspection so that it can deliver a befitting reply to Pakistan while retaining the moral high ground. —with Pradip R. SagarSubscribe to India Today Magazine- EndsTune InMust Watch
Hindustan Times
7 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
The Criminal Enterprise Run by Monkeys
PECATU, Indonesia—At a cliffside temple on the tropical island of Bali, an unexpected group of criminals is running one of the world's most sophisticated scam operations. Every week, they steal dozens of phones, wallets and other valuables from tourists in broad daylight and exchange them for handsome rewards. It's been going on for decades and nobody's been able to stop it. The culprits? Long-tailed macaques. 'The monkeys have taken over the temple,' said Jonathan Hammé, a tourist from London whose sunglasses were stolen by a monkey during a visit last year. 'They're running a scam.' A monkey waits for a chance to steal from tourists. The long-tailed macaques have been swiping peoples' valuables for decades. On the southern tip of the Indonesian vacation hotspot known for its beaches, tourists flock to Uluwatu Temple for traditional fire dance shows and panoramic views at sunset with the Indian Ocean crashing below. The Balinese Hindu site dates back to at least the 11th century and the roughly 600 monkeys that inhabit it are considered by locals to be sacred guardians of the temple. Primate researchers have found that the macaques steal belongings to use as currency to trade with humans for food. Some monkeys can distinguish between objects we highly value (smartphones, prescription glasses, wallets) and those we don't (hats, flip flops, hair clips)—and will barter accordingly, according to a University of Lethbridge team that spent years filming the macaques and analyzing hundreds of hours of footage. In other words, the monkeys have 'unprecedented economic decision-making processes,' the researchers wrote in a 2021 academic paper. Talk about monkey business. A monkey snatches a prescription glasses from a tourist.A temple worker successfully negotiates for a pair of glasses. When Hammé arrived at the temple with his wife, his tour guide handed him a stick, saying he would need it to fend off the monkeys. 'I said, 'What do you mean?'' recalled Hammé, 64. 'I thought he was giving me a stick because he thought I was too old.' The stick was no use. While Hammé was admiring the vista, a monkey jumped on his back, snatched his favorite sunglasses off his face and vanished. He found it in a tree playing with his sunglasses. A different tour guide handed him some Oreos and Hammé waved the cookies at the thief. It jumped down, grabbed the Oreos and tossed the sunglasses. They were bent. 'I didn't expect that the monkeys would be operating like a gang taking everything,' he said. 'It was like—have you seen 'Oliver Twist'?' Many cases require the help of the temple's monkey handlers, called 'pawang,' who negotiate with the furry hostage-takers. They offer fruits such as bananas, mangos, rambutan and mangosteen in exchange for the stolen items. In rare cases, they use raw chicken eggs, highly coveted by the monkeys. Ketut Ariana, a 52-year-old who has been working for the temple as a monkey handler for two decades, said the animals steal dozens of items a week, including five to 10 smartphones a day. Kadek Ari Astawa, who coordinates the monkey handlers, emerges from the bushes after retrieving a stolen smartphone. One of those victims was Taylor Utley, 36, from Louisville, Ky., who visited Uluwatu Temple last year on a wellness retreat for women. While she was walking along the cliff, a monkey grabbed her phone out of her hand and hopped onto the ledge of a barrier separating the walkway from the cliff's edge. She searched her bag for anything that could catch the monkey's eye. It wasn't interested in her scarf, so it began to scurry further down the ledge. That's when a handler tossed the monkey a bag of fruit. The monkey held onto the phone. The handler gave it another bag, then another, and another. Finally, when the monkey couldn't hold all the fruit, it dropped the phone. Utley was relieved, but she and the other women had enough. They left without seeing the fire dance show. 'I was taken aback,' she said. 'It's like a criminal enterprise of monkeys.' There are different theories of when and how the stealing began. Ariana, the monkey handler, said the theft predates tourists. They used to steal jewelry from people who came for religious ceremonies. Now, they steal glasses and smartphones. 'It truly gives me a headache,' he said. Tourists flock to Uluwatu Temple in Bali in part for its panoramic traditional fire dance show is also a big draw. A monkey holds a hair scrunchie. Kadek Ari Astawa, who coordinates the monkey handlers, said he heard that when the site first opened to tourism, visitors sometimes fed the monkeys. When temple management started feeding them a regular diet and forbade tourists from giving them food, the monkeys began to steal visitors' belongings. Astawa said the temple has tried many methods to attempt to curb the stealing: different feeding schedules (from three to six times a day) and different food at the regular feedings (corn, sweet potato, mangos and other options). But the robbing behavior continues. The monkeys are also known to steal just for fun. I found that out first hand on a visit to the temple earlier this year when a monkey grabbed my iPhone out of my hand and leapt into the vegetation on the edge of the cliff. I pictured the monkey chucking my phone into the ocean and tried not to cry. A passerby fetched a handler who climbed over the barrier at the cliff's edge in search of the robber. Silently, I made a plea to the universe, promising to do good deeds if I got my phone back. What followed was more than an hour of hide-and-seek. Again and again the handler would spot the monkey, only to watch it scurry away when he got too close. The handler called for backup. The backup called for backup. The monkey scaled a tree, leapt onto another tree, jumped back onto the side of the cliff and disappeared. At one point I saw it gnawing on my phone. As it was getting dark, my thief reappeared and the three handlers surrounded it. I couldn't see exactly how but they got my phone back and returned it to me with a chunk of the glass back missing. I tucked it in my bag and zipped it shut. When I looked through my phone later, I saw the monkey had taken some photos. A photograph taken by one of the thieves themselves. Write to Hannah Miao at The Criminal Enterprise Run by Monkeys The Criminal Enterprise Run by Monkeys The Criminal Enterprise Run by Monkeys The Criminal Enterprise Run by Monkeys The Criminal Enterprise Run by Monkeys The Criminal Enterprise Run by Monkeys The Criminal Enterprise Run by Monkeys
