Poona Horse is an armored regiment of Indian army with traditions going back two centuries. In Anglo-Persian war of 1856-57, Poona Horse captured the standard of 1st Khushgai Regiment at the battle of Khushab. A silver hand surmounted the standard and palm was engraved with Arabic words of ‘Yad Allah fawquar aydihim’ (the hand of…
Indian soldiers of British Indian army were not eligible for Victoria Cross (VC) until 1911. The highest award that an Indian soldier could get was Indian Order of Merit (IOM) prior to the eligibility for VC. Indian winners of VC belonged to all religions and ethnicities. Many Jat, Marhatta, Dogra, Garhwali and Gujar Hindus, Gurkhas,…
Mangal Panday – The Rising is a big budget Indian film and good research has been done about the history of this incident. Generally, a lot of cinematic license is used in most historical films but Mangal Panday has kept core historical facts intact. As expected, a lot of additional fictional material has been added…
“After this operation, it’s going to be either a Court Martial or Martial Law!” Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Operations) Air Commodore Abid Rao after attending a briefing at X Corps Headquarters about Kargil operation, May 1999 (1) On October 12, 1999, Pakistan army moved to remove Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government when he announced…
Abdullah, a young army officer met a charming lecturer, Anjum at Peshawar University. They decided to travel the brief journey of life together and married. Abdullah Saeed was son of Dr. Saeed Ahmad Khan (1900-1996) of Abbottabad. In early part of twentieth century, the Indians were trained at the newly established medical schools and Dr….
Recently, the birth centenary of Brigadier Muhammad Usman was celebrated in India. Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari and Chief of Army Staff General Bikram Singh attended the ceremony. Usman was born in Azmagarh and commissioned in Indian army in 1934 and was among the last batch of Indians to be trained at Royal Military Academy…
India and Pakistan gained independence in 1947 amid chaos and violence. All assets including armed forces were divided between the two countries. Both countries inherited intelligence agencies set up by British colonial authority. In British India, the most effective intelligence set up was civilian. Main concern of the authorities was attempts to tamper with the…
In the first decade after independence in 1947, several officers of Pakistan army were given rapid pro-motions. Officers with same names resulted in some confusion. Two Akbars and two Latifs were frequently confused. Two additional officers named Akbar served in different times. One was Khan Muhammad Akbar Khan, commissioned in different times in 1905 from…
Recently, there is lot of speculation in Pakistan about emergence of a third political force centered on cricketer turned politician Imran Khan and his party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI). A number of politicians from southwestern Punjab recently joined PTI. Southwestern Punjab is taking a lead in this phenomenon which makes it an interesting study to understand…
In a 1.3 million strong Indian army, there is a discrepancy about the date of birth of one officer. In Military Secretary’s (MS) branch the date of birth is May 10, 1950 while in Adjutant General’s (AG) branch it is May 10, 1951. This information was entered over three decades ago. In a mountain load…
