'We are ready to surrender,' Lieutenant General A A K Niazi said over the phone from Dhaka.
In its first official account of the standoff between the two militaries, the ITBP revealed how its troops "not only effectively used shield to protect themselves but also responded fiercely to advancing PLA (Chinese People's Liberation Army) troops and brought the situation under control". "The ITBP has recommended the names of 21 men who faced the Chinese during the face-offs and skirmishes in May-June this year for gallantry," it said.
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.
Former England captain Cook, 34, who retired from international cricket this year, was his country's most-capped Test player and record test run scorer.
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.
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.
The police also issued appointment orders to the duo who were taken hostage by the terrorist while looking for an escape route.
Special Police Officer Bilal Ahmad Magray of the J&K Police was a daredevil who sacrificed his life in the line of duty. His mother received the Shaurya Chakra with grief and pride.
'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.'
The parade began after President Ram Nath Kovind conferred the Ashoka Chakra -- India's highest peacetime gallantry award -- to Lance Naik Nazir Ahmad Wani, a militant-turned-soldier who laid down his life fighting a group of terrorists in Shopian in Kashmir in November.
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.
Six Army personnel including Col Santosh Babu, Nb Sub Nuduram Soren, Hav K Palani, Hav Tejinder Singh, Nk Deepak Singh and Sep Gurtej Singh, who lost their lives in the Galwan valley clash, have been awarded Chakra series wartime gallantry medals posthumously.
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).
Major is in a perennial state of exaggeration. The sighs, the misty eyes, the mushy speeches, its details are invested in highlighting all things in-your-face, observes Sukanya Verma.
'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).
'...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.
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.
'340 PLA soldiers were dead and over 450 injured -- bodies were strewn outside the bunkers, tossed behind the lines, buried in trenches.' A fascinating excerpt from Probal DasGupta's Watershed 1967: India's Forgotten Victory Over China.
Though dubbed as the "war hero", the role of Rajapaksa in ending the conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam with the death of its supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran in 2009 is quite divisive as he stands accused of violating human rights, a charge he vehemently denies.
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.'
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.
Another woman -- Nidhi Dubey -- was also commissioned as an officer.
The IAF in its letter to the censor board, and sent to Netflix and Dharma Productions, has stated that as per initial understanding, "Dharma Productions had agreed to represent Indian Air Force with authenticity and make all efforts to ensure that the film helps to inspire the next generation of IAF officers. " However, when the trailer of the movie was released recently, it was observed that "certain scenes and dialogues in the movie and its trailer, which was forwarded to this office for viewing, have been found to portray the IAF in an undue negative light."
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.
President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday awarded Shaurya Chakras to the officers who took part in the daring surgical strike across the Line of Control last year.
He was awarded DGP medal and commendation recently for his outstanding contribution.
The long-pending One Rank One Pension Scheme for ex-servicemen was tonight brought into force with government issuing a notification which will benefit over 25 lakh veterans and war widows.
Four officers of Special Cell involved in Batla House encounter were among 30 personnel of Delhi Police who have been awarded police medals on the occasion of Independence Day for meritorious services.
'I'm now living under threat, but life has to go on because as a soldier, you can't run away from it.'
Hameed was awarded Param Vir Chakra posthumously for his gallantry in the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war, when he single-handedly blew off five Pakistani tanks.
He praised the Indian media for handling the issue in a "responsible" manner.
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.
'Indian secularism doesn't deserve a tombstone. It needs a new shrine,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
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.
'Overnight, the Chetak had new markings and thereafter flew on the call sign, Echo-Bravo-Romeo.' 'By all accounts, this was the first aircraft of the Bangladesh Air Force.'
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.
It is only in the second half that Batla House has gripping moments, feels Prasanna D Zore.
'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...'
Here are highlights of the 68th Republic Day parade.
