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.
'We could quibble with each other whether there were 25 terrorists killed or 250 killed.' 'The message is more that India undertook such an aerial attack and this attack has actually changed the paradigm.' 'The change in paradigm is that India has shown by the surgical strike in 2016 and the aerial strike of 2019 that we will not just sit back and tolerate terrorism which killed so many of our people.' 'We will hit back and by hitting back we will raise the costs of such activities.'
Curfew remained in force in entire Srinagar district and Anantnag town on Saturday to thwart the separatists' plan to stage a two-day sit-in in the city centre even as the death toll in the ongoing unrest climbed to 56 in the Valley with the death of a youth injured in firing.
'There is a consensus within the Indian security establishment -- at least among those who draw their conclusions from data instead of speaking from nationalist sentiment -- that India lacks the offensive capability to defeat Pakistan in a short war.'
At least 13 people were killed on Tuesday and over a hundred injured when a powerful car bomb ripped through a police headquarters, an attack blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood aimed at derailing Egypt's democratic transition.
'The Russians? had risen to great heights of sacrifice and heroism and won a victory against Hitler and Nazism at such a tremendous cost in spite of being weighed down by the tyranny and oppression of Stalin.'
PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on Saturday appreciated Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiative 'to reach out to Sharif.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack. According to US monitor SITE Intelligence Group, the extremist group's propaganda outlet AMAQ claimed that the executors of the attack were soldiers of the Islamic State.
'The thin line is a permanent dilemma with soldiers. You have to appreciate that in that dilemma and chaos there are officers who stand and lead their men.
In his hunger for power, the prime minister has forgotten raj dharma, the Congress alleged.
"Pakistani troops resorted again to firing from automatic and small arms on Indian posts along the LoC in Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch district from 1935 hours," a defence spokesperson said in Jammu on Saturday.
Those advocating a similar raid in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, for instance, need to have a reality check on the applicability of the same template on other borders, says Nitin Gokhale.
The explosion took place at St Mark's Cathedral, main Coptic Christian cathedral, in Abbassyia district of central Cairo around 10:00 am when the prayers were on, according to a statement by the ministry of health.
India on Thursday reacted strongly to reports of Pakistan setting up a special group to "expose" New Delhi's alleged atrocities in Kashmir, saying it should focus its energies on "stemming the rot of terrorism instead of expending its breath" in making baseless charges.
A top army official said on Tuesday that the assaults were carried out recently as Pakistani posts were supporting infiltration inside India.
'A series of arrests have illustrated that IS now has a footprint in India.' 'India has been, for a very long time, a key part of Al Qaeda's global jihadist ambitions.'
Here's a look at the 10 most dangerous countries in the world.
'The government has sent a clear message to Pakistan: It is no longer business as usual.' 'The rules of the game have changed and a new game is at play,' says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
Why did the Chinese military take over the lab in Wuhan in end January? Did something go wrong? Claude Arpi glances at the mystery surrounding the origin of the coronavirus.
The new army chief's highest priority must be to address the critical hollowness in the Indian Army's operational preparedness, says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
In the pitch dark of the African night, a herd of cape buffaloes gather at the watering hole for a drink, taking care to stay by the edge to avoid the crocodiles lurking in the depths. In Gangiova, a village in Romania, a doctor places her stethoscope to the chest of a newborn baby, listening intently for the beating of his tiny heart. These are just some of the moments that have been picked by the judges for the Sony World Photography Awards. For the 2017 competition, photographers entered 227,596 images across the awards' Professional, Open and Youth categories. The Open competition winner will receive $5,000 (Rs 3.3 lakh), Sony digital imaging equipment and flights and accommodation to the awards ceremony at Somerset House in London. Sony World Photography Awards has been kind enough to share some of their shortlisted pieces with us.
As many as 29 explosions were recorded after the last terrorist was neutralised, giving an impression of continuing pitched battles!
While filled with startling insights and questions, and buoyed by terrific performances throughout, Newton suffers from a lack of end-to-end clarity. It is a near-great film but one that for some reason doesn't express itself fully, feels Sreehari Nair.
Stepping up relief and rescue operations in quake-hit Nepal, India on Sunday deployed over two dozen aircraft and choppers along with nearly 1000 trained personnel and said the situation in the Himalayan nation was "very, very serious".
The operation in Nagaland and Manipur was carried out after the army received "credible and specific" intelligence.
During last week's Nuclear Security Summit, President Obama asked the media to leave and then screened videos depicting plausible scenarios pertaining to nuclear terrorism.
Chemical weapons have been used in the ongoing conflict in Syria on a "relatively large scale", a United Nations report said, without blaming any side.
'Every single American act to weaken Syrian forces would only tilt the military balance in favour of ISIS whom Trump pledges to vanquish from the face of the earth,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The video clips showed some terrorists being killed, besides destruction of bunkers and other military constructions.
The intensity of the fire was so high that people in the villages around were woken up to a loud noise, with their houses shaking.
'Imran cannot escape responsibility for providing a mask to the Pakistan army to engage in unlawful activities and to wage aggression after India retaliated to the terrorist attack,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
'You can't get emotional about it. The plan has to be deliberated, debated and options need to be looked at.' 'I am not saying sooner or later, but it can't be too late.'
'Had they struck on the night of the 1st, there would have been hell to pay and had they been able to sneak further in, we would have had a greater problem,' says Lieutenant General H S Panag (retd), the former Northern Army Commander.
Much of the pre-2014 peace in our hotspots is diminished. Kashmir is on the boil and the Northeast is anarchic, observes Shekhar Gupta.
'The more harder India pushes its nationalism on to its population, the further away we send Kashmiris.' 'We should understand that the unrest in that state cannot be solved by demonetisation. There are much deeper causes,' says Aakar Patel.
Very few today realise that without Brigadier John Dalvi's courage, we would never have known what really happened during those tragic days of October/November 1962, reveals Claude Arpi.
'Local support is very important, without it the terror attack couldn't have taken place.' 'Explosives were secured, the IED was manufactured, the boy was brainwashed and converted into a suicide bomber... it takes a lot of planning and hard work.'
A lack of understanding on how to tackle the Maoist challenge is adversely affecting security operations on the ground and not the inefficiency or inability of the security forces to put pressure on the Maoists, says former Chhattisgarh top cop Vishwa Ranjan.
'Their failure to take Siachen is an embarrassment to the Pakistan army -- and let them live with it. Our army's shoulders are broad enough to endure the challenge.'
New Delhi has repeatedly missed opportunities for political engagement in Kashmir in the past. It must seize the next one, says Ajai Shukla.
