On 29 February 2020, the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement in Doha, Qatar, it is wrongly called a peace agreement. It is not a peace agreement but outlining a set of rules that highlight gradual U.S withdrawal and simultaneous Taliban political ascendency in Afghanistan. Both sides reached at the crossroad in 2020 after a…
This book is history of the last chapter of united Pakistan in 1971. Ikram Sehgal is in a unique position to write about the separation of eastern wing of Pakistan and emergence of independent Bangladesh. His father was Punjabi and mother Bengali, he had personal relations with Bengali and non-Bengali senior political and military leaders….
‘Being a friend of the United States is like living on the banks of a great river. The soil is wonderfully fertile, but every four or eight years the river changes course, and you may find yourself alone in a desert’. Pakistan’s army chief and President General Muhammad Zia ul Haq to CIA director William…
Grave stones and memorial tablets are silent sign posts that provide a window not only to a life but a whole era. Memorial tablet of Major Philip Hockin at a church in Lahore is one such story. He joined Indian army on 08 March 1841. He was promoted Lieutenant on 24 January 1845, Captain on…
The Shia of Kashmir have a unique history. There were two groups of Shias who migrated to Kashmir from present day Iran and Iraq in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. One group escaped persecution and the other were missionaries. Some artisan classes also joined these groups. Local conversion due to efforts of missionaries increased Shia numbers….
Brigadier ® Nisar Ahmad Khan passed away on 30 July 2019 in Michigan; United States. He was nick named ‘Kaka Nisar’. A fine officer and gentleman who was instrumental in a very important holding action of armor in 1965 Indo-Pakistan War faded away into the fog of history. He was born on 28 March 1920 at Bassi Pathana…
‘Being a friend of the United States was like living on the banks of a great river. The soil is wonderfully fertile, but every four or eight years the river changes course, and you may find yourself alone in a desert’. General Muhammad Zia ul Haq to William Casey 1983 quoted in John E. Persico’s…
The First World War was a global conflict with millions of soldiers fighting in theatres all over the globe. All belligerents captured hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war (POWs). British, Prussian, Czarist, Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires mobilized native citizens as well imperial subjects for war. The Ottoman Empire was influenced by Prussian military system…
“Spying is a like a game of chess. Sometimes you have to withdraw, sometimes you have to sacrifice one of your pieces to win preferably a knight rather than a king or queen”. John Rhys-Davies Pakistan army spokesperson announced on 30 May 2019 that two army officers and one civilian were tried by a Field…
On the eve of the First World War, the British army consisted of the regular army, territorial forces and reserves. The recruitment of regular infantry regiments was county based. Each infantry regiment consisted of two battalions. Territorial force consisted of part-time soldiers. County associations trained and equipped territorial battalions. These associations were controlled by local…
