The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four-star general. Two officers have been conferred with the rank of field marshal, a five-star rank, which is a ceremonial position of great honour. The Indian Army was formed in 1895 alongside the long established presidency armies of the East India Company, which too were absorbed into it in 1903. The princely states had their own armies, which were merged into the national army after independence. The units and regiments of the Indian Army have diverse histories and have participated in several battles and campaigns around the world, earning many battle and theatre honours before and after Independence.
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948, or the First Kashmir War, was a war fought between India and Pakistan over the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir from 1947 to 1948. It was the first of four Indo-Pakistani wars between the two newly independent nations. Pakistan precipitated the war a few weeks after its independence by launching tribal lashkar (militias) from Waziristan, in an effort to capture Kashmir and to preempt the possibility of its ruler joining India. The inconclusive result of the war still affects the geopolitics of both countries.
The Research and Analysis Wing is the foreign intelligence agency of India. The agency's primary function is gathering foreign intelligence, counter-terrorism, counter-proliferation, advising Indian policymakers, and advancing India's foreign strategic interests. It is also involved in the security of India's nuclear programme.
Maharaja Sir Hari Singh was the last ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Order of British India was an order of merit established in 1837 by the East India Company for "long, faithful and honourable service". The company's powers were removed after the Indian Mutiny, and the Order was incorporated into the British Honours System in 1859. The order became obsolete in 1947, after the partition of British India into the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan.
The Aviation Research Centre (ARC) is India's imagery intelligence organisation, a part of the Directorate General of Security, run by the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW). It started functioning in November 1962, in the wake of the Sino-Indian War, as an extension of the Intelligence Bureau, but placed under the Ministry of External Affairs. It was formally created on 7 September 1963, with R. N. Kao as Director and Acting Group Captain Lal Singh Grewal as Operations Manager at Charbatia air base. It was later moved to the Prime Minister's Secretariat, and in February 1965, along with Special Frontier Force and Special Service Bureau, was brought under the Directorate General of Security in the Cabinet Secretariat. One of its most influential Directors was Prof H.B. Mohanti. ARC was initially a temporary and ad hoc organisation, but was made permanent in 1971. Over the years, ARC had grown into a large operation and flies a large and varied fleet that until recently included the high-flying Mach 3 capable Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25.
The National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) is a technical intelligence agency under the National Security Advisor in the Prime Minister's Office, India. It was set up in 2004.
Samba district is a district in the Indian Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir formed in 2006. Before its formation, this area was part of Jammu district and Kathua district.
The Directorate of Military Intelligence (M.I.) is the Intelligence arm of the Indian Army. The primary mission of military intelligence is to provide timely, relevant, accurate, and synchronized intelligence support to tactical, operational and strategic-level needs of the army.
Kashmir Singh is a former Indian spy. He spent 35 years in Pakistani prisons, before he was released with Presidential pardon by Pervez Musharraf.
General Vijay Kumar Singh, PVSM, AVSM, YSM, ADC is an Indian politician and a former four-star General in the Indian Army. He is the current Minister of State in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and Ministry of Civil Aviation in the Second Modi ministry. He previously served as Minister of State for External Affairs, Minister of State for Development of the North-Eastern Region and Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation in the First Modi ministry.
Lieutenant Navdeep Singh, AC was a Ghatak Platoon Commander of 15 Maratha Light Infantry regiment in the Indian Army.
The 2014–2015 India–Pakistan border skirmishes were a series of armed clashes and exchanges of gunfire between the Indian Border Security Force and the Pakistan Rangers: the paramilitary gendarmerie forces of both nations, responsible for patrolling the India-Pakistan border) along the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed Kashmir region and the borders of the Punjab. Tensions began in mid-July 2014, with both countries' military officials and media reports giving different accounts of the incidents and accusing each other of initiating the hostilities. The incident sparked outrage in both countries and harsh reactions by the Indian and Pakistani militaries and the Indian and Pakistani governments.
Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav is an Indian national. It is alleged by the Pakistani government that he was arrested in the Pakistani province of Balochistan on charges of terrorism and spying for India's intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing. On 10 April 2017, Indian foreign ministry alleged he had been "kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been explained credibly".
Brigadier Rajinder Singh Jamwal, MVC, also remembered as the Saviour of Kashmir, was an officer in the Jammu and Kashmir State Forces. He briefly served as the Chief of Staff of State Forces and died fighting during the First Kashmir War. Rajinder Singh and his small contingent of about 200 men successfully delayed the advance of a much larger force of Pakistani tribal raiders near Uri for several days, during which the Maharaja of Kashmir acceded to India and the Indian forces air-lifted for the defence of Kashmir.
Lieutenant General Kashmir Singh Katoch, MC was an Indian Army General and military adviser to the Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir, officiating as the Chief of Staff of the State Forces during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. He later served as the Vice Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army.
The 2016–2018 India–Pakistan border skirmishes were a series of armed clashes between India and Pakistan, mostly consisting of heavy exchanges of gunfire between Indian and Pakistani forces across the de facto border, known as the Line of Control (LoC), between the two states in the disputed region of Kashmir. The skirmishes began after India claimed to have conducted surgical strikes against militant launch pads within the Pakistani-administered territory of Azad Jammu and Kashmir on 29 September 2016.
Yash Paul Kundal is an Indian politician belonging to Aam Aadmi Party in Jammu and Kashmir. He was the state president of Young Panthers, the youth wing of the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party. He has twice been a Member of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, and was the Minister of Animal and Sheep Husbandry from 2002 to 2008. On 8 April 2022, he joined Aam Admi Party.
Subedar Major and Honorary Captain SundarSingh, AC was an Indian Army officer who was awarded India's highest peace time military decoration Ashoka Chakra. Lance Naik Sunder Singh was a great soldier of 4th Battalion, Jammu & Kashmir Rifles Punjab.
Major–General Onkar Singh Kalkat, PVSM, was an Indian military officer in the British Indian Army and later the Indian Army. Soon after the partition of India in 1947, he stumbled upon the plans for an Operation Gulmarg, which were apparently Pakistani plans to attack the princely state of Kashmir, two months before they were to commence. Even though he conveyed the information to the Indian authorities, he was not taken seriously. Senior Indian officials including the-then Defence Minister of India Sardar Baldev Singh, Brigadier Kalwant Singh and the DGMO, Col. P. N. Thapar, were complicit in the delay in taking action on Kalkat's information. Kalkat's account also shows the complicity of some British officials in the 1947 invasion of Kashmir.
