The No. 51 Squadron is to be retired by the end of September, "as per the plan", the defence sources said.
'Whatever you work towards, be dedicated, do your best. Never go to bed thinking I could have put in more effort'
'The next war will be fought by China-Pakistan against India and we have to fully be prepared. We must read the writing on the wall.'
'Indian secularism doesn't deserve a tombstone. It needs a new shrine,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
He was conferred with the Shaurya Chakra in August for averting a possible mid-air accident after his Tejas light combat aircraft suffered a major technical glitch last year.
I can never forget the day when in a remote corner of the planet that mariners call the Horn, or the Everest of the Seas, I hoisted the Indian flag on my boat and gave a salute to our tricolour. It was the proudest moment of my life, says Indian Navy Lieutenant Commander Abhilash Tomy, the first Indian and second Asian to solo circumnavigate the globe on a sailboat -- nonstop and unassisted.
The nearly five-minute video captured glimpses of the lives of soldiers deployed along the ice-capped mountains of the high-altitude region including their round-the-clock vigil, training and combat readiness to deal with any threat.
Here are highlights of the 68th Republic Day parade.
Yogendra Singh Yadav survived 15 bullets while capturing Tiger Hill in the Kargil War and was awarded the Param Vir Chakra, India's highest award for gallantry. On the eve of Independence Day, the 32-year-old soldier relives that night when he and his fellow commandos won one of India's most historic military victories.
'We are ready to surrender,' Lieutenant General A A K Niazi said over the phone from Dhaka.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is addressing the nation for the seventh time from the ramparts of the Red Fort on Independence Day on Saturday and it will be his second speech of the second term in office.
Lance Naik Mohan Nath Goswami met a hero's end battling Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorists in the jungles of Kashmir. His valour earned him the nation's highest gallantry award in peacetime this Republic Day. Archana Masih/Rediff.com travelled to Lal Kuan, Haldwani, to find out who this hero was.
'My adrenalin kicked in and the happiness returned! It was time to go in for the kill again.' IAF Veterans Group Captain Dilip Kumar Dass tells Air Commodore Nitin Sathe about how the IAF decimated tanks in the famous Battle of Longewala.
The name plates of Lieutenant Colonel Dhan Singh Thapa, Colonel N J Nair, Havildar Hangpan Dada and Subedar Joginder Singh were unveiled at a ceremony in Kolkata.
'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).
Major Kuldip Singh Chandpuri was awarded the Mahavir Chakra, the second highest medal for gallantry for leading a small company of men against a massive Pakistani attack.
'26/11 taught us we have to be ready for a direct attack. Today if anyone launches a similar attack we are more than prepared.'
Major General Ian Cardozo (retd) lost his leg in the 1971 war with Pakistan. He tells Claude Arpi about the the war where more than 93,000 Pakistani prisoners were taken, a region was liberated and a new nation born.
Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon is the only Indian Air Force warrior to be decorated with the Param Vir Chakra. 'My admiration for his gallant action remains undiminished,' says M P Anil Kumar. 'It was not his day, yet he made it his own.'
Twenty years ago, over 50 days in the summer of 1999, the Indian Army fought some of the toughest battles in the annals of military history to evict the Pakistan army from Kargil. The battle to recapture Tiger Hill was a major turning point in the Operation Vijay campaign, points out Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
'And Indians are loving it,' says Shekhar Gupta.
On the first anniversary of the deadly clashes, the army said the supreme sacrifice of the soldiers while fighting the adversary in the "most difficult" high altitude terrain will be "eternally etched" in the memory of the nation.
'...Cliffy with utter disregard to his personal safety, charged through the fire zone, closed in on the enemy, threw hand grenades inside their bunkers and killed six enemy soldiers!' '...He was hit by a volley of bullets. Even before breathing his last, Cliffy killed a Pakistani soldier in hand-to-hand combat...' Captain Keishing Clifford Nongrum, who was just 24, received the Mahavir Chakra posthumously for his superhuman act of valour in the Kargil War just 18 months after he joined the Indian Army. Archana Masih/Rediff.com remembers one of India's Bravest Of The Brave as the nation salutes the 527 soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice for the Motherland on Vijay Diwas.
Colonel Sonam Wangchuk was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra, India's second highest honour for courage, for wresting the first victory of the Kargil War. Leading 40 men, his unit evicted 135 Pakistani troops in a three day battle fought in two feet snow and minus 6 degrees.
He praised the Indian media for handling the issue in a "responsible" manner.
'I'm now living under threat, but life has to go on because as a soldier, you can't run away from it.'
The attack on the Balochistan Police College, 20 km from Quetta city began around 11:10 pm on Monday night, triggering an operation by Pakistani security forces who rescued hundreds of cadets from the academy.
Jha, a fearless officer of the country's largest paramilitary force, led a lethal anti-Naxal operation on July 3 last year in Jamui district of Bihar.
'Reduce the perks and privileges of MPs, but let there be no reduction in the money spent on the education of martyrs' children,' says former BJP MP Tarun Vijay.
On display was India's military might and cultural diversity.
He added that there was a proper mechanism in place for grievance redressal, and if they were not satisfied, they could even contact him directly, instead of turning to social media.
Brigadier M P Bajwa (retd), commander of the troops that captured Tiger Hill, tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih how a band of young soldiers won the Kargil War's most famous battle with their blood and grit.
September 12 marked the 122th anniversary of one of the most incredible battles in Indian history.
In his first engagement outside the national capital, the President confers a rare honour on a brave, young, regiment.
'He was an embodiment of old school courtesy and grace. It was embarrassing when he would insist on receiving and seeing off guests at the gate of his house! A trait he shared with another of great soldiers of India, Sam Manekshaw!' remembers Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'Captain Haneef-ud-din, pulling his sinewy body forward, crawled, rifle in hand, in the snow on 6 June 1999. He died on this craggy mountainside exactly two years after he had passed out of the IMA...'
'We know what we are signing up for. There is nothing greater than that.' What Archana Masih/Rediff.com learnt from a chance encounter with an Indian Army officer.
'I have never seen such a large parade being commanded with such precision just by a vocal word of command.' 'I would like to import this technology to England.' Air Commodore Nitin Sathe (retd), then a final year cadet at the National Defence Academy remembers Queen Elizabeth II's visit to NDA in November 1983.
'Our biggest problem has been keeping this country together.' 'Nation building is never easy. It is a very difficult task.' 'Even 70 years is not too long a time.'
'If you put colour-coded internal security maps of India in May 2014 and now, the picture won't be flattering to Modi.' 'Failures on internal security are now piling up and can break Modi's momentum,' says Shekhar Gupta.
