To honour the supreme sacrifice of the infantry in fighting the Pakistani raiders in Jammu and Kashmir in 1947, the Indian Army on Tuesday celebrated its 68th Infantry Day with traditional solemnity and gaiety all across the Northern Command.
Referring to reports of withdrawal of troops and Army pickets in Rajouri and Poonch districts, Panag confirmed that 'there was no withdrawal at all'.
Describing the situation along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh as "well under control", a top army commander on Friday said the force is committed to launch "intelligence specific and people friendly" operations to counter the ongoing proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Army on Tuesday said it was prepared to give an appropriate response to any adverse aggressive designs of China in the Ladakh sector, maintaining that the integrity of the country was being ensured through physical patrolling and technical means.
Army Commander Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi visited the twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch and took stock of the ongoing operation, the officials said, adding he asked the troops to be relentless in their pursuit.
Defence sources had said possible 'action plan' was also discussed about how the Army can respond to the attack.
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.
General Singh assured the nation that the Indian Army is highly motivated and ready to respond to any threats to national security.
Army Chief Dalbir Singh on Saturday visited the Northern and Western Commands to review India's operational preparedness along the border with Pakistan in the wake of heightened tension between the two countries following the surgical strike at terror camps across the Line of Control.
The sources said Singh will carry out a comprehensive review of the security situation in the region with Gen Naravane, Northern Army Commander Lt Gen Yogesh Kumar Joshi, Commander of the 14 Corps Lt Gen Harinder Singh and other senior army officials.
It took India and the Indian Army to show to the world that enough is enough and to challenge the neighbourhood bully, he said.
Official sources have said that Chinese troops entered nearly 1.5 km into the Indian territory near Mount Gya, recognised as the international border by India and China, and painted the word 'China' in Cantonese on the boulders and rocks there with red spray paint.
He said that the army has tried to neutralise foreign terrorists along the Line of Control in Rajouri and Poonch.
Congress sources said party president Rahul Gandhi met Lt Gen Hooda and discussed the modalities of the panel.
Military affairs experts said his key challenge will be to build consensus among the three services for the theaterisation plan as the Indian Air Force has some apprehensions about its roll-out.
Rajnath patted some of the soldiers of the regiment while commending their bravery in protecting India's pride and self-respect.
In the wreath laying ceremony for the slain Colonel Santosh Mahadik in Srinagar, all the officers and the jawans of the 41 RR paid their tributes to him.
The killing of Naik Rajib Thapa, 34, raised the death toll in the cross-border firing in the past week to four -- three soldiers and one civilian.
Twenty-seven months after she lost her husband in an anti-insurgency operation in south Kashmir's Pulwama, 29-year-old Nitika Kaul on Saturday donned the army uniform after completing a one-year rigorous training in Tamil Nadu.
Faced with an onslaught of unsavoury messages on social media, some purportedly written by retired and serving personnel, the army on Thursday turned to Facebook to caution them against accepting or forwarding messages without verifying facts.
There were no reports of presence of the Taliban in Jammu and Kashmir, a top army commander has said, but maintained that the troops remain well-prepared to tackle threats of any nature from any terrorist group.
A patrol party came under the avalanche at Turtuk area of Siachen, the highest battleground in the world
Two top Army commanders on Saturday said the fresh ceasefire between India and Pakistan will have no bearing on the counter-terrorism operations in Jammu and Kashmir and that the force will exercise 'maximum restraint' in the event of any violation by the neighbouring country.
"The army chief chief reviewed the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir and also operational preparedness of Northern Command at a high-level meeting," officials said.
"It was a miraculous rescue. All efforts are being made to evacuate Lance Naik Hanaman Thappa to the hospital in the morning," Lt Gen D S Hooda, northern army commander, said.
The Congress on Thursday came out with a list of six anti-terror surgical strikes carried out during the United Progressive Alliance rule.
Terror outfits in Jammu and Kashmir are now constructing elaborately-designed underground bunkers deep inside thick forests and elevated ridges instead of taking shelter in local houses, officials said. This tactical shift, fuelled by eroding local support, presents a new challenge to the Army and other security forces.
Speaking to media-persons after paying his last tributes to five soldiers, including two Army captains, who lost their lives in the Rajouri firefight, Lt Gen Dwivedi said, "While we lost five of our brave soldiers in the encounter, we also eliminated two dreaded terrorists. Our boys went after the well-trained and equipped foreign terrorists without giving any thought to their personal safety. This (taking out the dreaded terrorists) has dealt a major blow to the terror ecosystem and Pakistan. As per our estimation, 20-25 terrorists could still be operating in the area. We should be able to control the situation in a year's time with the help of locals."
'Initiatives taken by the government and security forces had resulted in a drop in the number of local youths being radicalised and taking to insurgency over the last few months.'
Three civilians picked up by the Army for questioning after the terrorist ambushed two Army vehicles on Thursday at Dhatyar Morh between Dhera Ki Gali and Buffliaz in Poonch were found dead on December 23.
Lt Gen Y K Joshi, the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Army's Northern Command, in an exclusive interview to CNN-News18, has said no land has been ceded to China. "No, a very emphatic no actually," he said while speaking to CNN-News18's Defence Editor Shreya Dhoundial.
After the denial of visa to the then Northern Army Commander Lt Gen B S Jaswal by China in 2010, New Delhi had frozen all bilateral defence exchanges with Beijing
'Not a single soldier should be left behind in enemy territory.' Nitin A Gokhale's fascinating account on how the Indian Army conducted the daring and successful cross-border operation last September.
The shelling from across the border started in Nowshera sector around 12.30 pm, ending over 12-hour-long lull in the border skirmishes which intensified after India's pre-emptive strikes on Jaish-e-Mohammed's terror camps at Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan on Tuesday.
"The current border situation is overall stable," the Chinese diplomat said.
In his memoir Four Stars of Destiny, Naravane recounts Singh's direction as well as a flurry of phone calls between the defence minister, external affairs minister, the national security advisor and the chief of defence staff that night on the sensitive situation.
The Indian Army in its full military grandeur began the two-day celebrations of the 13th anniversary of its victory in the 1999 Kargil war with the hoisting of a massive national flag at the War Memorial in Drass sub-sector of the district.
Under the provision of Section 92 of the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution, governor's rule is imposed for six months.
In a major success, army killed five suspected Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorists while losing two soldiers during an overnight encounter that ended on Saturday in Kupwara district bordering Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Revealing details about the militants' launch pads, the intelligence officer of the army said that Pakistan has made 20 launch pads along the international border and at least 33 along side the LoC.
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