The new ISI chief Lt Gen Mukhtar possesses a vast experience in the field of intelligence and has headed the counter-terrorism wing of the spy agency in Islamabad. He was commissioned in the Armoured Corps regiment in 1983.
The Chinese military, on the last day of its largest-ever military exercises to vent out its anger over United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, carried out island saturation attack drills in the Taiwan Straits, amid global concerns of a full-scale attack to annex the breakaway island which Beijing claims is part of its territory.
'India showcased its ability to launch multiple Special Forces strikes simultaneously across a well defended front.' 'Through these strikes Pakistan was given a glimpse of the full range of India's military capabilities,' says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
The 2.3 million strong People's Liberation Army, the world's largest, adopts a more aggressive posture with massive structural revamp.
"Whatever we are doing is in close coordination and synergy with the army and the Indian Air Force to produce desired results," he said.
'Their redemption is here. Definitely not in Pakistan.' 'They know if they step 20 steps on the other side of the Line of Control they will never return.' 'They will be ill treated.'
'There is a sense of realism in the Pakistan army that if they needled India during the Ladakh standoff, they would have seen a strong retaliation.' 'Pakistan was hoping that India would come out looking weaker in the region and get embarrassed, but that obviously has not happened.'
'The military officers at China's National People's Congress reflect Xi Jinping's preference for elevating politically reliable, younger, officers with good professional qualifications,' says former RAW officer and China expert Jayadeva Ranade.
'We should not minimise the seriousness of Chinese encroachments because their perception is different.' 'Nor should we fall into the trap of accepting so-called 'buffer zones' in areas of overlapping claims. We cannot have buffer zones in our own territory,' asserts Ambassador Shyam Saran, a former foreign secretary.
'Not a single bullet was fired, but we were warning the enemy not to continue with their antics!' IAF Veteran Air Commodore Nitin Sathe finds out how the Light Combat Helicopter, which will be inducted into the IAF on October 3, was designed, developed and flown.
The initial reaction to provide assistance to the quake-hit people was spontaneous and came from the grassroots levels of armed forces.
Kargil Vijay Diwas is observed on this day every year, marking successful conclusion of the war with Pakistan in the Kargil-Drass sector of Jammu and Kashmir in 1999.
'Past experience shows us that cross-border strikes have not prevented Pakistan from continuing with further terror attacks.'
Mehbooba Mufti said that incidents like the ones at Handwara and Nathnusa are "unacceptable" and come as a major setback to the efforts of the state government in consolidating peace dividends in the state.
Why does the army remain embroiled in counter-insurgency, denying itself a peace dividend even after expending blood and treasure in imposing calm?
The bodies of the three militants were recovered from the debris of the house at Arwani in Bijbehara area on Friday morning after security forces blew up the building using explosives, a police official said.
Intensifying its targeted assassinations of militants, Israel's air force on Thursday bombed a house in Gaza killing three senior Hamas commanders among 19 Palestinians on the 45th day of the deadly conflict.
Six armed foreign militants were killed on Monday and three armymen lost their lives in a fierce gunbattle that broke out along the Line of Control in Kupwara sector of Jammu and Kashmir.
'The era of conventional wars is almost over in the Indian context.' 'In such a scenario, special forces could play a decisive strategic role in the spectrum of conflict.'
India and China on Thursday held high- level comprehensive dialogue on a host of financial issues to identify areas of convergence to step up their cooperation in the international and bilateral economic spheres.
Indian Air Force's 115 Helicopter unit and 26 Squadron, both doing yeoman's services in rescue operations and war have been awarded with the President's Standard award, an official said on Friday.
A top Lashkar-e-Taiyba commander was among the three militants killed in two ongoing fierce encounters in the Zachaldara forest area of northern Kashmir's Kupwara district, according to a police spokesman.He said the Army and the police surrounded the forest areas of Bahnipora and Satkoji in the Kupwara district on Tuesday afternoon.
'We owe our existence to the men in uniform, and we owe it to them to cleanse the armed forces by driving away every bit of corruption that eats into it,' argues Sudhir Bisht.
Triggering a major diplomatic row, China has refused to permit an Indian army general to visit that country as he is in-charge of "sensitive" Jammu and Kashmir, prompting an angry retaliation by India which put all defence exchanges with it on hold till the matter was sorted out.
Indian cricket captain Mahindra Singh Dhoni and his teammate Suresh Raina, on a trip to seek the blessings Mata Vaishnodevi ahead of the World Cup, on Sunday could not make it to the cave shrine due to bad weather.
Life in most parts of Kashmir started limping back to normalcy after remaining paralysed for five days due to strikes and protests.
With the aim of giving special forces a technological edge over terrorists, Northern command headquarters had recently floated tenders for the purchase of high-tech multi-utility GPS wrist watches, defence sources said.
After making incursion bids in Ladakh through land route, Chinese troops have made several attempts to enter Indian waters at Pangong lake nestled in the higher reaches of Ladakh with the latest incident reported on Friday.
President Kalam will arrive at the Northern Command headquarters in Udhampur on May 3, where top army officers would receive him, official sources said.
Army's Northern Command Chief Lt Gen B S Jaswal on Thursday remained unruffled by the Chinese action denying him a visa that fuelled a diplomatic row with India but said it reflected their "predilection".
Seeking to downplay the visa row with India, Chinese experts have said that military ties between the two countries are strong and powerful and will not be "compromised" by incidents like Beijing's refusal to permit a top Indian Army officer to visit the country.
Official sources said withdrawal of tanks and other armoured elements from certain friction points is nearing completion while pulling back of troops from the North bank areas is being undertaken.
Amid assertions by the Indian army that infiltration in Keran sector was backed by Pakistani troops, Islamabad on Tuesday said blame game is not the solution to any issue and insisted it too wants a ceasefire along the Line of Control.
Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan alias Karuna, who was the eastern commander of the LTTE before he fell out with Prabhakaran in 2004, and Daya Master, who surrendered to the army recently, were taken by the government to Puthumatalan to identify Prabhakaran's bullet-ridden body. "The body is of Prabhakaran's, there is no doubt about this," said Karuna, now a federal minister
'The Chinese fault lines are tremendous and we need to exploit them.'
'We should build a military with the capability to fight today's war on priority -- balancing it with the requirements of the future,' says Lieutenant General Anil Chait, one of the Indian Army's most cerebral thinkers who recently retired as chief of the Integrated Defence Staff, in his agenda for the new defence minister.
'Tibetans will participate in future conflicts with India (in all probability, some were already present in Galwan).' 'As nobody in India would like to have a deadly fight with Tibetan soldiers and officers, the issue needs to be closely followed,' observes Claude Arpi.
Once Mazar-i-Sharif falls, some isolate pockets of resistance may remain, which the Taliban would tackle through political work or coercion, asserts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.