AK-203 assault rifles, with an effective range of 300 meters, are lightweight, robust and easy to use modern assault rifles with proven technology.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday handed over to the Army a raft of home-grown military hardware including unmanned aerial systems, quick reaction fighting vehicles, patrol boats and surveillance equipment for boosting its overall combat capability in eastern Ladakh.
Having already received and deployed the first lot of around 72,500 Sig Sauer assault rifles from the US for counter-terrorist operations, the new batch of these assault rifles would be given to the soldiers deployed on the front with China in Eastern Ladakh.
The order for the second batch of the assault rifles would be coming after the first lot of 72,000 rifles, has already been delivered to the army for use by troops in Northern Command and other operational areas.
Two AK rifles and one INSAS rifle have been recovered from the spot.
The terrorists were later identified as Pervaiz Ahmad Wani of Galoora Handwara and Naeem Ahmad Najar of Shelpora Brad, Sopore, he said.
A Greyhounds jawan sustained injuries, following which he was airlifted to Warangal and admitted to a hospital.
In the four-and-a-half minute video, the terrorists are hugging each other as well as laughing in an attempt to lure youth to join militancy.
Not giving any breathing space to the Maoists after being pushed on the "back foot" in the last few months, Jharkhand police have accomplished its target of replacing all the .303 rifles with INSAS for its combat forces this year.
These new assault rifles, which will come at a cost of around Rs 700 crore, will come in 1 year's time.
Six members, including three women, of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) were killed in an alleged exchange of fire with the elite Greyhounds of Andhra Pradesh Police in Visakhapatnam district on Wednesday, while a fierce gunbattle took place between security forces and Maoists in neighbouring Odisha's Malkangiri district.
A new video of Hizbul Mujahideen has surfaced on social media, showing a group of armed militants greeting and hugging each other, in a reminder of the campaign undertaken by its erstwhile commander Burhan Wani before he was killed in an encounter three months back.
The Indian Army rejected DRDO's INSAS assault rifle in 2010 due to its all-round inefficiency. Now the army is being forced to accept DRDO's Excalibur rifle, which is basically an ungraded variant of the INSAS, to make up for a severe shortage of small arms.
Soldiers fighting the enemy will receive state-of-the-art assault rifles, other soldiers will get 'Make in India' rifles.
550 live cartridges, an INSAS assault rifle, two other rifles and three self-loading rifle magazines were seized along with a huge quantity of explosives and detonators.
When the fierce encounter ended around 3:30 PM on Saturday after almost 10 hours, senior cadre Milind Teltumbade and 25 ultras had been killed.
'The coronavirus impact is much bigger than what the market had predicted. We are helpless and simply watching the market at present. Nothing can be done,' said Anil Devli, chief executive officer (CEO) of Indian National Shipowners' Association (INSA).
A senior police officer said a group of militants barged into the post manned by four cops deployed for guarding members of the minority community in Adijan village of Kulgam.
The deadly Maoist ambush, claiming the lives of 14 Central Reserve Police Force personnel in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district, was planned and supervised by local Naxal leaders who were reportedly camping in south Bastar for past few days, a senior police official said on Tuesday.
The posters put up by district police Shopian with pictures of gun-wielding terrorists said identity of people giving information will be kept secret.
Over 300 drones and unidentified flying objects have been sighted along the sensitive border with Pakistan post the 2019 abrogation of Article 370, central security agencies have said, even as they grapple to find a suitable technology to check these lethal sky-floaters.
An adult male rhino was killed at Kaziranga National Park in Assam and its horn was taken away by poachers.
The Jammu zone Inspector General Danish Rana said that the encounter took place on early Thursday morning in which two SPOs, who had deserted the police force in September and joined militants, were eliminated.
The terrorists struck at the police picket in Tujjar Sharief area of Sopore in Baramulla by opening fire.
One SSB jawan was killed and another injured in the attack.
Deputy Inspector General of Police Sheetal Oraon said the policemen were on patrol duty when a group of Maoists fired indiscriminately on their vehicle killing three of them on the spot.
Four Maoists were killed on Monday in an encounter with security personnel in Latehar district's Katia forests, the police said.
At least six Karbi Peoples Liberation Tigers militants, including two of its top leaders, were killed and an army man was injured in an encounter with security forces in the early hours in Karbi Anglong district of Assam on Friday.
Two cadres of the outlawed Garo National Liberation Army and an accomplice were arrested by the Assam Police along with a huge cache of arms and ammunition from the Inter State Bus Terminus in Guwahati on Thursday
Security forces are carrying out searches in various areas to nab the six terrorists, the source said.
"Militants in combat uniform barged into the guard room of TV tower at Dalvash in Dooru area of Anantnag district around 12.30 am and overpowered the cops guarding the installation," the police official said.
The killing of the two terrorists is a huge success for the forces, he said. Kumar said LeT terrorists were also behind the killing of Bhupinder Singh, Block Development Council chairman, Khag, in central Kashmir's Budgam district.
Amar Dubey, who carried a reward of Rs 25,000, was killed in an encounter in Maudaha village in Hamirpur district.
A Naxal couple which had decamped with weapons from a police station in Dhamtari district of Chhattisgarh was gunned down in a police encounter in the wee hours on Wednesday, a senior police officer said.
Rahul Bedi reports on the defence ministry's decision to seek a long-pending replacement for the INSAS assault rifle for its troops
Terrorists attacked a police picket in south Kashmir's Medura village in Pulwama district on Tuesday night and decamped with arms and ammunition after overpowering the police guards in the post.
An AK-47 rifle, one SLR, three Insas rifles and a .303 rifle were also recovered from the encounter spot.
Over 600 bullets and a dozen improvised explosive devices recovered after a gunbattle.
The first encounter took place when a police team was approaching to arrest Vikas Dubey, a history-sheeter facing 60 criminal cases, in Dikru village under the Chaubeypur police station on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday, police said.
Indian music maestro A R Rahman struck gold once again, bagging two trophies at the 52nd Grammy Awards in Los Angeles for his music in Slumdog Millionaire.