This move by the BSF is in protest to the growing incidents of ceasefire violations across the Line of Control and the International Border.
Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who just couldn't stop praising Pakistani Army General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani , told Congress Thursday that Kayani has purged the so-called 'rogue' elements from the ISI who are in cahoots with the Taliban.
"If 5,000 of these folk (some have estimated the strength of the LeT upwards of 150,000) decide to come out tomorrow in defense, there would be no police -- nowhere in sight. They could take over the city."
An acute equipment shortage and an army that has only been trained to fight against India has left the Pakistani army highly ineffectual in its counter-insurgency efforts against the Taliban, said South Asia expert Stephen Cohen.
The military, which has accused the Taliban of violating the accord by abducting and killing civilians and security personnel, said it is awaiting instructions from the government for launching a full-fledged operation in the region located 160 km from Islamabad.
Pakistani-Canadian terror suspect Tahawwur Hussain Rana has contended before a US court that his financial status has taken a beating after his arrest by FBI and he cannot flee the country as he will not be able to "fund an international game of hide and seek".
Exchange of sweets between border guards of India and Pakistan along the LoC and the IB in Jammu and Kashmir, a regular feature during Eid festivities, did not take place on Wednesday.
Following the announcement of the new Af-Pak strategy by President Barack Obama, US officials have indicated that it would be difficult for the Pakistani establishment this time to purchase anything not be useful for anti-terror fight. Concerns have been expressed from various quarters earlier about diversion of anti-terror funds by Pakistan to buy equipment more suited for conventional warfare.
One could assess without fear of contradiction that the New Delhi visit of Panetta, who is still to find his feet as an intelligence chief, would have had a much larger political objective for Obama. Firstly, to reassure Indian leaders that Clinton's first visit to China does not mean the downgrading of the US relations with India.
Authorities in Rajouri district evacuated 217 students and 15 teachers from three schools.
Two persons suspected to be senior Pakistani army officers were named on Wednesday in the chargesheet filed by Mumbai police in connection with the 26/11 terror attacks.
Pakistan's new President Asif Ali Zardari may face threat from his country's army, which remains unwilling to counter a resurgent Taliban effectively, a leading think tank claimed on Thursday."The Pakistani army remains unable or unwilling to counter effectively the resurgent Taliban and Zardari's major challenge is to gain the trust of the army, which in turn may pose a threat to him," the International Institute for Strategic Studies said.
Former CIA operative Bruce Riedel on the Uri attack and its aftermath. Exclusive to Rediff.com
Pakistani army targeted Indian military positions along the Line of Control in Poonch area of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, in yet another ceasefire violation.
According to Sabahuddin -- the prime accused in the attack on the Central Reserve Police Force camp in Rampur and the attack on the Indian Institute of Science -- the Pakistani army ensured that the new recruits had a safe passage into Lashkar camps. Sabahuddin, explaining his journey into jihad, told interrogators that he decided to tread this horrific path in the year 2002.
Security expert B Raman writes on the alarming rise of Taliban in Pakistan.
During a war, there are just four possibilities a soldier faces. One: Victorious and safe. Two: Wounded. Three: Killed in action. Four: Prisoner of War. It was my fate to face the fourth, says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd) on the year spent as a prisoner of war in Pakistan during the 1971 War.
As Akhilesh did not visit martyr's family, BJP leaders during assembly polls made it a political issue.
Top Indian policymakers tell Business Standard that the Obama administration's goal is clear: rather than trying to win the war in Afghanistan, simply aim at bottling terrorism inside the Pakistan-Afghanistan area, and monitor the borders electronically to prevent any "leakage" of jihadis.
The Bofors gun continues to give India 'an edge' over its adversary on the Line of Control and has helped the country win 'artillery duels', till the time the ceasefire came into effect in 2003, Indian Army officers say. "With a range of over 35 kms in the high-altitude terrain, the gun helped us win artillery duels with Pakistani Army on the LoC till the 2003 ceasefire between the two countries," said a senior officer.
A leading US daily describing nuclear-armed Pakistan as "unquestionably the biggest concern" to stability in South Asia.
The defence ministry spokesman refused to confirm or deny any such operation.
While officials of the two allies offered few details on Wednesday about what was decided or even discussed at the meeting -- including any new strategies, tactics, weapons or troop deployment -- the star-studded list of participants and an extreme secrecy surrounding the talks, New York Times said the talks underscored how gravely the two nations regarded the growing militant threat.
Indian troops guarding the border, retaliated resulting in exchanges.
In the gun battle, one terrorist identified as Sadam Hussain Mir, a resident of Chatripora Shopian, belonging to Hizbul Mujahideen, was killed, the official said.
Ahmed Rashid, perhaps the world's foremost expert on the Taliban, says while it's true that the Pakistani army may be in denial over the internal existential threat of the Taliban and other extremist groups and may be obsessed over the perceived threat from India, it is imperative New Delhi cuts Islamabad some slack.
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.
Leading South Asia experts have assured the United States Congress that the prospect of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal falling into fundamentalist hands is, at least in the short term, unlikely.
"The arrests being made are for our own investigations. Even if allegations are proved against any suspect he will not be handed over to India," Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in Islamabad
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Beating of war drums, would further accord primacy to the army in Pakistan. A better approach would be to continue the talks for normalisation of trade relations, while giving the Indian forces autonomy to strike at militant camps across the LoC, says Alok Bansal
Pakistan's powerful army and the its espionage agency Inter Services Intelligence are using "terrorist brinkmanship" to threaten India and undermine their own Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to secure domestic gains against their civilian leaders, a former CIA analyst has said.
According to a report in The Hindu, the Indian Army carried out surgical strikes across the LoC in August 2011 in retaliation for a surprise attack on an army post in Kupwara in July 2011 that killed six soldiers.
The Pakistani media on Thursday mostly towed the official line.
This is the second ceasefire violation by Pakistan in as many days.
There was an unanimous endorsement of his decision to impose emergency, suspend the Constitution and sack Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhury. However, the majority of the commanders expressed their reservations over the wisdom of his attempts, under US pressure, to reach a power-sharing agreement with Benazir Bhutto.
'It is for the first time in 70 years that the US has come out totally in India's favour on the Kashmir issue,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Nawaz Sharif's brother Shahbaz may hold talks with Pakistani Army generals soon to negotiate a deal before the deposed premier returns home, most probably on September 9, a leading daily reported on Monday.
In Delhi, Election Commission officials have admitted that 66 per cent polling was "much beyond their expectations and was indeed a pleasant surprise".
Bangladesh's fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami leader and media tycoon Mir Quasem Ali was hanged on Saturday, the sixth Islamist to be executed for war crimes committed during the country's 1971 Liberation War against Pakistan.
Battles rage in remote tribal areas; Pak forces feel the heat
