The India factor in Afghanistan

By VK Shashikumar | Issue: Vol 23.3 Jul-Sep 2008 | Date: 14 January 2012

In 2001 US and its allies launch the war against terrorism after the world is stunned by the horrific terror on the WTC twin towers in New York. Seven years later Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar are still at large and Taliban has regrouped just...

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Pakistan's export of fake currency via Nepal

By VK Shashikumar | Issue: Vol. 23.4 Oct-Dec 2008 | Date: 13 January 2012

At most places along the 751 km Bihar-Terai contiguous no-man’s land on the India-Nepal border are dirt tracks. Solitary signpost marks the international boundary here. On one side is Bihar, on the other Nepal’s Terai region. The...

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Game Plan for Return of Musharraf

By Bharat Verma | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 11 January 2012

There is a clear link between Musharraf’s announcements to fight elections in 2012 and lead his party, propping up of Imran Khan, and Pakistan Army and the ISI. In a pre-planned move Musharraf has been garnering international support to...

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Defence of Srinagar 1947

By Col Bhaskar Sarkar | Issue: Book Excerpt: Outstanding Victories of the Indian Army | Date: 06 January 2012

Battle of Shalateng

When the British left in 1947 after creating Pakistan and India, the Princely States were given the option of acceding to India or Pakistan or to remain independent. All the Princely States except two had soon aligned with...

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1971 War: The Ganganagar Sector

By Maj Gen Sukhwant Singh | Issue: Book Excerpt: Indias Wars Since Independence | Date: 31 December 2011

The presence in the general area of Montgomery-Okara-Bahawalpur of the Pakistan strike force, II Corps, consisting of 1 Armoured Division and 33 Infantry Division, and the possibility of building up this force with 7 Infantry Division, posed a...

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Intelligence Reform

By Vikram Sood | Issue: Vol 24.1 Jan-Mar 2009 | Date: 17 December 2011

'Nothing should be as favourably regarded as intelligence; nothing should be as generously rewarded as intelligence; nothing should be as confidential as the work of intelligence.’ Sun Tzu, The Art of War

It is possible that had...

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NE Insurgency: The Religious Dimension

By Brig SP Sinha | Issue: Book Excerpt: Lost Opportunities | Date: 16 December 2011

Before the advent of Christianity, the hill tribes of Assam practiced animism. An important consequence of the spread of British administration in the hills of Assam was undoubtedly the arrival of missionaries, which led to many hill tribes...

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East Pakistan: The Mukti Bahini takes shape

By Maj Gen Sukhwant Singh | Issue: Book Excerpt: Indias Wars Since Independence | Date: 14 December 2011

A bout the end of the first week of April 1971, most of the revolting Bengali troops had been flushed out into India by the sheer brute force of the Pakistani Army. Some of them were badly mauled, others had lost their weapons, all of them were...

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Leadership in the 21st Century: Sam Manekshaw, MC

By Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw MC | Issue: Book Excerpt: Field Marshal KM Cariappa: | Date: 01 December 2011

Vice President, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am fully conscious of the honour and privilege which is mine to be invited here to address you this evening. The honour is even greater that you should have invited a soldier when you could have invited...

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1971 War: The Air Force in War I

By Maj Gen Sukhwant Singh | Issue: Book Excerpt: Indias Wars Since Independence | Date: 01 December 2011

The public clamour for Indianisation of the armed forces in the early 1930s led to the establishment of the Indian Sandhurst Committee. Along with other recommendations the committee insisted that the officer cadres in the air arm in India...

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