Quotas rule promotions in a "Mandalised" army, finds Ajai Shukla
India's cricket captain and the goodwill ambassador of the Indian army spent his second day in Kashmir interacting with patients, officers and troops besides meeting the new General Officer Commanding (GOC) designate, Chinar Corps, Lieutenant General Om Prakash.
The Bombay high court on Friday stayed the granting of custody of three key accused in the September 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case to the National Investigation Agency.
Purohit was doing his job as a military intelligence officer and was "framed" in the case, his lawyer and former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told the high court on Friday.
Former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni made himself "unavailable" for the tour of West Indies but ruled out immediate retirement a day before the selectors meet in Mumbai to pick the squads for the upcoming away series.
The four Indian Army personnel, whose helicopter mistakenly landed in Pakistan-held territory on Sunday, were grilled for nearly four hours but were treated well. Army sources on Monday said that Pakistan army personnel questioned the two pilots and two crew members about how they came there and other related issues in an effort to ascertain their motives.
'Those who say that conventional war is a thing of the past or that war is not an option, or that diplomacy alone can prevent war -- are wrong and we see that in Ukraine.'
Pandey added that Dhoni will play the IPL for another two or three seasons.
Bangladeshi security forces on Thursday arrested Moulana Yahiya, chief of banned terror outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, along with two of his accomplices from Kishorganj district. "We have arrested him (Yahiya) today morning," said elite Anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion's intelligence wing chief Lieutenant Colonel Ziaul Ahsan. He said the three were arrested after intercepting a passenger bus in which they were traveling to Kishorganj from Sylhet.
Lieutenant Colonel, MS Dhoni arrived in Jammu to visit forward areas to familiarise himself with the conditions in which the troops of the Indian army and the Territorial Army, operate in Jammu and Kashmir.
He has served in the military and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, before becoming the founder and director of the country's Information Network and Security Agency, which is responsible for cyber-security in a country where the government has always exercised tight control over the internet.
An Army Lieutenant Colonel was embroiled in an alleged honeytrap and then blackmailed by Inter-Services Intelligence which reportedly asked him to spy for Pakistan during his posting in Bangladesh.
The Armed Forces Tribunal on Wednesday asked the army to reconvene the probe against Malegaon blast accused Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit, holding that the Court of Inquiry against him "suffers from the vice of irregularity".
'We are ready to surrender,' Lieutenant General A A K Niazi said over the phone from Dhaka.
Investigative agencies are finally looking at the possibility of a Hindutva terror network. Aseemanand's alleged confession and the earlier arrest of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Purohit have shown the trail of the Hindutva terror network, which has turned the course of investigations into the bombings of Malegaon, Samjhauta Express, Ajmer Sharif and Mecca Masjid bomb blast cases.
The agency has booked 23 Army personnel and civilians, including relatives of officers, for allegedly demanding bribe and facilitating bribery, they said.
The Assam police on Thursday arrested at least 10 cadres of the United National Liberation Front, an outlawed insurgent outfit from Manipur, in Guwahati in a special operation.According to a senior police official, the Manipuri militants had taken shelter in various rented accommodations across the city. The arrested ultras included two self-styled majors and one self-styled lieutenant colonel. The police have recovered a large number of incriminating documents.
A special court in Bangladesh on Thursday sentenced 46 Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) soldiers to prison terms up to seven years for staging a revolt at their unit in the southeastern Khagrachhari hills in February 2009 when border guards in Dhaka had killed 57 army officers in a bloody massacre.
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A battle royale, fought over 15 long years, comes to an end as a prince and a princess -- grandchildren of the legendary Rajmata Gayatri Devi -- get back the Jai Mahal Palace Hotel from their step-uncles.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who is also a honorary Lt. Col in the Indian Army, appreciated the school's contribution for the visually impaired children.
Security forces foiled an infiltration bid in the Keran sector of the Line of Control early on Sunday morning and killed two intruding terrorists.
Lieutenant Colonel SK Natt was evacuated to a hospital for treatment.
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to take up on Monday an appeal filed by Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, key accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blasts case, challenging her prosecution under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act.
The Chinar Corps put out photographs and a video of the former captain while playing and interacting with the cricketers and the youths.
Two army troopers were killed and six others wounded in an explosion that occurred inside a passing vehicle that was part of a convoy in north Kashmir's Baramulla district.
A week after the killing of a 13-year old boy in an Army premises in Chennai, the Tamil Nadu Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department has cracked the case with the arrest of a retired Army officer, who confessed to his involvement in the incident. The special team of the Crime Branch of CID police arrested the 58-year old Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Kandaswamy Ramraj and recovered the 0.3 mm rifle used to fire at Dilshan, who was hit by the bullet.
Army Chief General V K Singh said there was no communalism in the service and officers such as Malegaon blast accused Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Purohit were only an "aberration".
The Pakistani jawan -- Sarfaraz Ahmed of Mujahid brigade, a paramilitary force -- was handed over to Pakistani authorities after the Army was convinced that he had accidentally strayed into Indian territory.
'The simultaneous fire from so many guns rained down on the enemy and pulverised them, a sight I can never forget till my last breath.'
Two militants were on Saturday killed in an encounter with army troops in Handwara area of north Kashmir's Kupwara district. "Two militants have been killed in an operation at Mooldari in Handwara area of Kupwara district," Defence spokesman Lieutenant Colonel J S Brar said.Brar said two major hideouts were also busted in the area.
"It is a grievous offence. Many people were killed. The trial is still on," the apex court said when Purohit's counsel submitted that the accused was languishing in jail for the past two years.
Batting ace Sachin Tendulkar was on Friday conferred the Indian Air Force's honorary rank of Group Captain in honour of his cricketing achievements and contribution to the nation. He is the first sportsperson to be conferred a rank by the IAF and the first personality with no aviation background to receive the honour.
The youths were handed over to the Indian Army by the PLA after completing necessary formalities, Tezpur-based defence spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Harsh Warrdhan Pande said.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) rescued a head constable of the Jammu and Kashmir police wounded in a fierce encounter in the hilly Reasi district on Saturday, a defence spokesman said in Srinagar on Sunday.
Alerted by intelligence reports over a possible spillover of terrorist activities into Himachal Pradesh, army has mounted a strict vigil along Chamba district and certain areas along the Jammu and Kashmir-HP border.
'Captain Vikram Batra, PVC and his unit 13 Jak Rif did stand out because of the sheer magnitude of the task allotted to them but also the exceptional professionalism with which it was executed and completed,' recalls Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
The Anti-Terrorist Squad of the Mumbai police suffered a major setback last week, when charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against Sadhvi Pragya Singh, Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit and nine other accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, were dropped by the special court's designated Judge Y B Shinde.Dropping MCOCA charges against the prime accused in the Malegaon blast case has definitely made the prosecution's task tougher.
'As per intercepts, the toll is much higher,' Lt Col Mukhtar Singh said.
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