Gilgit Baltistan's large frontage with Kashmir and Ladakh across Kargil and the Siachen Glacier gives Pakistan and China the perceived scope for conduct of collusive operations against India and wrest control of the major course of the Indus and Shyok, observes Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
The statements made by the opposition parties after the preemptive air strike on terror camps have made only people of Pakistan happy, he claimed.
'It is a testing time for our foreign policy which may involve a certain element of taking risks, assessing costs, and expecting failures,' asserts Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
The Indian Army on Monday mourned the demise of two young officers in the ongoing encounter with terrorists at the Entrepreneurship Development Institute in Pampore, Jammu and Kashmir.
'We don't know what the reasons were that we gave back the Haji Pir Pass which was strategically very important. Today the entire infiltration into Kashmir takes place from that area. If we had retained that post that we had captured, things could have been different.' 'A lesson we need to learn is if you start losing the gains of war at the negotiating table, they become a disincentive for future wars,' says Lieutenant General D B Shekatkar (retd), reviewing the lessons from the 1965 War.
It will not be to India's advantage to create misperceptions that it is bandwagoning with some Anglo-American project for regime change in Myanmar, argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'India has ramped up infrastructure on its side, so the Chinese military is finding Indian soldiers in locations where they are not used to seeing an Indian footprint,' points out Harsh V Pant.
Fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami leader and media doyen Mir Quasem Ali was Thursday indicted by a special Bangladeshi tribunal on charges of "crimes against humanity" committed during the 1971 liberation war.
The police on Thursday claimed to have busted a module of Hizbul Mujhaideen by arresting four terrorists involved in the killing of a Special Police Officer and attack on a sarpanch in Sopore area in Baramulla district of north Kashmir.
Teams of the National Disaster Response Force started landing in Gujarat with the help of the Indian Air Force to undertake preventive evacuation of people living on the west coast, an IAF official said.
The three-page guidelines, issued by the home ministry recently and notified to Central Armed Police Forces headquarters in New Delhi, speak specifically of instances where force personnel have used personal cell phones to click pictures of an ongoing or concluded ambush or operation
Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra on Tuesday directed the security forces to avoid collateral damage and exercise maximum restraint while conducting anti-militancy operations in the Valley.
'This is for the first time that a strong, solid evidence-based investigation has happened.' 'It can meet international standards and put the onus on the Pakistanis.'
Central Reserve Police Force Deputy Commandant and five-time gallantry medal winner P R Mishra has become the only person from paramilitary forces to have been decorated with a Shaurya Chakra this Independence day for displaying exemplary courage in anti-Naxal operations.
The Naxals used over 50 kilogram of explosives in Chhattisgarh's Sukma, about a year after a dozen jawans were killed in a similar ambush in the district.
'The Pakistani military has encouraged and supported terrorist organisations, especially in Kashmir, as a means of waging proxy war against the Indian military and the country's superior economic resources.' 'The evidence is irrefutable with the recent killing of 46 paramilitary troops being just the latest example.'
The NIA on Monday registered a case to probe the conspiracy of Pakistan-based terrorist group, believed to be Jaish-e-Mohammed, behind the strike at the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot in Punjab.
'It is purely based on real-time hard intelligence.' 'Timing is important. When you are attacking at 3.30 am, then everybody will be in the academy of terrorists.' 'If you attack at 10 am then someone will be out, so timing is very important.' 'Therefore, 3.30 am is the time when every terrorist is sleeping.'
The US and Pakistan then struck a deal that the US would raid his compound but make it look as if Pakistan was unaware, Hersh said.
China's newly-formed Rocket Force has held an exercise with advanced DF-16 medium-range ballistic missile with a range of over 1,000 kms that could threaten a number countries, including India, Japan and the United States.
Singh said the prime minister voiced concern over the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, gave guidance and also appealed for peace.
The paramilitary and police forces in the country have lost 31,895 personnel in the last 53 years in the line of duty but they are still fighting for the "martyr" status for the dead officers and men like in the armed forces.
With the PMO itself spearheading a re-evaluation, the Director General of Defence Accounts has been asked to justify its earlier contention that the 'slab based' system would benefit a larger number of disabled veterans -- something the army flatly denies, reports Ajai Shukla.
Singh said, "It is extremely shocking and tragic that the prime minister of this country is pointing fingers at opposition parties for questioning the Army or the Air Force.
Jaishankar said that the resolution on Kashmir introduced by Jayapal in the House is not a fair characterisation of the situation in J-K. And also said that he has no interest in meeting the Congresswoman.
The Maoists squad 'very discreetly with the aid of locals' kept tracking the movement of the troops when one party of 36, out of the total three, sat down for launch, the strong squad of Naxals, possessing sophisticated weapons, took them by surprise.
Was Wang Yi'S visit intended to remind India of 1962, asks Claude Arpi?
Culture Minister Prahlad Patel asserted that national memorials cannot be 'political memorials' and they should be kept away from politics.
Instead of ramming through change, Mr Parrikar has tied his own hands by placing reform at the mercy of numerous committees, says Ajai Shukla.
The 7th CPC places the Indian Police Service (and, almost in passing, the Indian Forest Service) on a level with the Indian Administrative Service, leaving the military out in the cold.
The police chief asked the youth to focus on studies and their careers and not indulge in violence by getting swayed by the propaganda.
China also hinted that India was objecting to its efforts to build the road in Donglang area of the Sikkim sector on behalf of Bhutan.
"Talks are the only option," Mehbooba said. "How long can you have a confrontation?"
The Chinese Communist Party's all important 19th Party Congress is just months away, and President Xi Jinping finds himself confronting unlikely challenges to his pre-eminent position, says former RA&W officer and China watcher Jayadeva Ranade.
The new minister must commit himself to supporting long-term defence plans or else defence modernisation will continue to lag and the growing military capabilities gap with China will assume ominous proportions, warns Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
The Pampore attack in Jammu and Kashmir "appeared to be" the handiwork of Lashkar-e-Tayiba terror outfit, Central Reserve Police Force Director General Prakash Mishra said.
Samdong Rimpoche's visit to China materialised against the backdrop of strained India-China relations consequent to the face-off between Indian and Chinese troops at Doklam, says former RAW officer Jayadeva Ranade.
Former Army Chief Gen V K Singh, who has courted controversy over secret military intelligence unit Technical Support Division, on Monday slammed its winding up, saying people "inimical" to India's security would be happy.
It said the prime minister of Pakistan has neither chosen to condemn the heinous act nor condoled with the bereaved families.
'On June 15, 1965, Major A K Afridi of the Pakistan army was captured by Papa's 1 Mahar unit near Vigokot, when he accidently walked into Indian territory.' 'While he was being airlifted to Delhi from Kutch, Major Afridi made a request: He wanted to watch Sangam>, the movie starring Raj Kapoor and Vyjayantimala. It was a request that the Indian Army fulfilled.' 'Major Afridi was sent with armed escorts to watch the movie in Ahmedabad and then sent to Delhi for further interrogation.'
