The search for survivors continues after several devastating landslides triggered by heavy rainfall hit the hills in Wayanad district.
'Till 10 pm last night, we rescued 70 people, after which we had to stop because of bad weather and rain.'
In one of the worst natural disasters in Kerala, at least 123 persons were killed and 128 injured in massive landslides triggered by torrential rains in Wayanad on Tuesday. With hundreds trapped under the debris, sparking fears of mounting fatalities, rescue agencies were racing against time to pull out any survivors.
Unidentified armed men abducted Sepoy Kom, who was on leave, from his home around 10am on Saturday.
'There cannot be anyone like Air Marshal Keelor -- he was so difficult to emulate.' Air Commodore Nitin Sathe (retd) salutes War Hero Air Marshal Denzil Keelor PVSM, KC, AVSM, VrC who passed into the ages last month.
As per preliminary investigation, Lt Mohit Gupta has been missing since 6 am on Friday.
The IMD also issued a red alert in the same 10 districts for August 3 also.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Tuesday visited the family of soldiers killed in the Pakistani terrorist attack at the air base in Pathankot.
The 70-year-old ex-serviceman Ram Kishan Grewal from Haryana's Bhiwani district had allegedly consumed poison.
They batted for better coordination between the Indian Air Force and the Army in guarding the air bases in case of exigencies like the one at Pathankot in Punjab.
The terrorists who had stormed the Pathankot air base were "well trained" and "strongly stocked" with arms and ammunitions to inflict heavy damage to the assets stationed there and that explains the long counter-terror operations going on against them, top government sources said.
The intensity of fire and explosions at central ammunition depot at Pulgaon in Wardha district was such that seven of the victims were blown to pieces, a top police official said.
Intermittent blasts and exchange of fire to neutralise two more terrorists continued on Sunday night at Air Force Station in Pathankot, Punjab where four terrorists were killed, seven security men lost their lives and 17 persons were injured in the over 40-hour-long operation.
The 70-year-old ex-serviceman Ram Kishan Grewal committed suicide by consuming poison at a park in New Delhi area on Tuesday evening.
The IAF is also in the process of finalising a Rs 8,000-crore comprehensive security proposal for its 54 main flying bases in the country.
The delay in receiving the revised pension was due to problems in calculation at his bank's end.
The NIA on Tuesday summoned the caretaker of a shrine in Punjab which a superintendent of police rank officer had claimed to have visited before being kidnapped by terrorists who attacked the Pathankot Air Force base hours later.
The terrorists were armed with AK-47s, grenades, pistols, knives, many rounds of ammunition. Sepoy Jagdish Chand's weapons were his bare hands and enormous courage. He died, but not before he felled one of them. Archana Masih/Rediff.com speaks to the family of Sepoy Jagdish Chand, one of the 7 soldiers martyred in the terrorist attack on the Pathankot Air Force Station.
The NSG, aided by the Garuds and the Army, conducted a chain of surgical 'step by step' operations to eliminate the six terrorists.
As counter-terrorism operations at the Pathankot air base continued for the second consecutive day, the Union government on Sunday said it was unsure if more terrorists were still holed up.
'The Pathankot episode shows that the security forces handled the attack well after the initial setback, although there is no denying that there are shortcomings in India's security grid that need urgent correction,' says national security expert Nitin Gokhale, founder, BharatShakti.in
The JIT will be taken to only those areas of the air force station that were accessed by the terrorists, who attacked the base in the early hours of January 2 this year.
Nitin Gokhale reports on how quick decisions saved a repeat of a Mumbai-like carnage at the key Punjab air force base.
'Ajit Doval has done a splendid job in handling the Pathankot attack and certainly helped save heavy destruction of critical air force assets,' says Abhay Jere.
The intensity of the fire was so high that people in the villages around were woken up to a loud noise, with their houses shaking.
'Inept handling by the National Security Advisor transformed what should have been a short counter-terrorist operation in Pathankot into an apparent debacle.'
What India has failed to acknowledge is that sub-conventional war is the name of the game and irregular forces have emerged with greater strategic value over conventional and even nuclear forces, and reliance purely on conventional force and diplomacy is grossly inadequate, says Lt Gen Prakash Katoch (retired).
'Had this been handled in a correct way, the only lives that would have been lost, presumably, were the lives of the terrorists and that would have been welcome.' The information we had was pure gold. You seldom get information of this kind several hours in advance, exactly where they are going to strike. But we still couldn't act on this intelligence.'
'Had they struck on the night of the 1st, there would have been hell to pay and had they been able to sneak further in, we would have had a greater problem,' says Lieutenant General H S Panag (retd), the former Northern Army Commander.
'If you destroy the assets in Pathankot, you degrade the combat potential of India; you degrade the war potential of India.'
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