Latest news with #BeatingRetreat
NDTV
22-05-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
BSF Busted Infiltration Bid By 50 Terrorists Backed By Pak During Op Sindoor
Samba(Jammu And Kashmir): The Border Security Force (BSF) foiled a major infiltration bid by 45-50 terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Samba district on May 8, using heavy mortar fire to destroy enemy posts after Pakistan attempted to facilitate the infiltration along the International Border (IB) under the cover of ceasefire violations, BSF officials confirmed to ANI. According to Deputy Inspector General (DIG) SS Mand, the BSF effectively responded to the shelling, destroyed enemy posts, and prevented the terrorists from entering Indian territory. The BSF official also added that the forces were well prepared and responded with heavy bombardment to stop the infiltration facilitated by Pakistan. "Our brave soldiers have inflicted great losses on them. We got intelligence that a large group is trying to infiltrate. We were ready for them and we detected them on 8 May. They were a group of 45-50 men... They were advancing to our location... We assessed the situation and since our scenario was war-gamed, we inflicted heavy bombardment on them... As expected, they retaliated with heavy fire from their posts... We opened up with heavy and accurate fire on them. That was a major factor. They were seen running away from their posts. We sorted them out in 1.5 hours..." DIG Mand told ANI. Mand added that BSF officers were present alongside soldiers at forward posts, which played a key role in boosting troop morale. He also praised the role of women soldiers, saying, "Our women troops stood shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts, carrying out all duties effectively. We are truly proud of them." He further added, "Our officers were present with the soldiers on the forward posts. This was a major factor in the morale of our troops being very high... We decimated their bunkers and degraded their fire capacity... Our jawans are still very energised and if the enemy takes any action again, we will retaliate with ten times more force... BSF has these clear orders... Our women soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts and executed all orders and duties effectively... We are really proud of our women troops..." Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha visited the Poonch Brigade headquarters on Wednesday. He met Indian Army soldiers and BSF personnel stationed in the area. In another development, the BSF has resumed the ceremonial evening retreat at all three Joint Check Posts (JCPs) along the Punjab border. The Beating Retreat ceremony, also known as the flag-lowering event, has resumed at the Attari-Wagah, Hussainiwala, and Sadqi JCPs. The event had been suspended on May 9 following the "barbaric" Pahalgam attack and the subsequent launch of Operation Sindoor to avenge the victims of the terror attack. It is now open to the public again. India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 as a decisive military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed. Indian Armed Forces targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, leading to the death of over 100 terrorists affiliated with terror outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen. After India's strike on terror infrastructure, Pakistan responded with cross-border shelling across the Line of Control (LoC) and Jammu and Kashmir, as well as attempted drone attacks targeting civilian areas along the border regions. In response, India neutralised Pakistani air defence apparatus, radar infrastructure, and communication centres, and inflicted heavy damage across 11 airbases in Pakistan. After this, on May 10, an understanding on the cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan was announced.
Time of India
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
BSF crushed infiltration bid of 50 terrorists facilitated by Pakistan during Op Sindoor in J-K's Samba: DIG Mand
The Border Security Force (BSF) foiled a major infiltration bid by 45-50 terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir 's Samba district on May 8, using heavy mortar fire to destroy enemy posts after Pakistan attempted to facilitate the infiltration along the International Border (IB) under the cover of ceasefire violations , BSF officials confirmed to ANI. According to Deputy Inspector General (DIG) SS Mand, the BSF effectively responded to the shelling, destroyed enemy posts, and prevented the terrorists from entering Indian territory. The BSF official also added that the forces were well prepared and responded with heavy bombardment to stop the infiltration facilitated by Pakistan. "Our brave soldiers have inflicted great losses on them. We got intelligence that a large group is trying to infiltrate. We were ready for them and we detected them on 8 May. They were a group of 45-50 men... They were advancing to our location... We assessed the situation and since our scenario was war-gamed, we inflicted heavy bombardment on them... As expected, they retaliated with heavy fire from their posts... We opened up with heavy and accurate fire on them. That was a major factor. They were seen running away from their posts. We sorted them out in 1.5 hours..." DIG Mand told ANI. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Direct Shopping From Adidas Franchise to 50% off Adidas Buy Now Undo Mand added that BSF officers were present alongside soldiers at forward posts, which played a key role in boosting troop morale. He also praised the role of women soldiers, saying, "Our women troops stood shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts, carrying out all duties effectively. We are truly proud of them." He further added, "Our officers were present with the soldiers on the forward posts. This was a major factor in the morale of our troops being very high... We decimated their bunkers and degraded their fire capacity... Our jawans are still very energised and if the enemy takes any action again, we will retaliate with ten times more force... BSF has these clear orders... Our women soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts and executed all orders and duties effectively... We are really proud of our women troops..." Live Events Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha visited the Poonch Brigade headquarters on Wednesday. He met Indian Army soldiers and BSF personnel stationed in the area. In another development, the BSF has resumed the ceremonial evening retreat at all three Joint Check Posts (JCPs) along the Punjab border. The Beating Retreat ceremony, also known as the flag-lowering event, has resumed at the Attari-Wagah, Hussainiwala, and Sadqi JCPs. The event had been suspended on May 9 following the "barbaric" Pahalgam attack and the subsequent launch of Operation Sindoor to avenge the victims of the terror attack. It is now open to the public again. India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 as a decisive military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed. Indian Armed Forces targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, leading to the death of over 100 terrorists affiliated with terror outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen. After India's strike on terror infrastructure, Pakistan responded with cross-border shelling across the Line of Control (LoC) and Jammu and Kashmir, as well as attempted drone attacks targeting civilian areas along the border regions. In response, India neutralised Pakistair defence apparatus, radar infrastructure, and communication centres, and inflicted heavy damage across 11 airbases in Pakistan. After this, on May 10, an understanding on the cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan was announced.
Hindustan Times
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
How 2 Indian, Pakistani army officers, also friends, set up Wagah check-post
Over 500 years ago, in the 16th century, Sultan Sher Shah Suri (1472-1545 CE) built a road from Sonargaon in Bengal to Peshawar in Pakistan. It is said that the ancient Uttarapatha (northern road), which had been used for trade, migration and conquest was used as a guide by Sher Shah, who has left an indelible mark on our history despite his short reign. After the takeover of India, the British revamped and renamed it to the Grand Trunk (GT) Road, which remains in use. It was a route of hectic activity, crisscrossing provinces and cultures, traversing the stunning diversity from east India to the north-west frontier. Rudyard Kipling, the famous chronicler of colonial India, wrote in Kim: 'The Grand Trunk Road is a wonderful spectacle. It runs straight, bearing without crowding India's traffic for fifteen hundred miles - such a river of life as nowhere else exists in the world'. The 1947 partition of India destroyed this river of people, which ran red with the blood of tens of thousands of overnight refugees for months. In less than seven weeks, millennia old bonds were shredded by the British who deployed a rookie lawyer, Cyril Radcliffe, to redraw the borders based on dated data. He snipped the GT Road at Wagah, a village lying almost halfway between what were then the twin cities of Amritsar and Lahore. This tiny village, a dot on the border between the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and secular India, has become the most popular stage for the performance of nationalism for the vexed neighbours. The militaries of India and Pakistan engage in a quotidian display of a ritual: the Beating Retreat- that contains patriotic songs being belted out from stadium-size speakers, patriotic sloganeering, and finally the centrepiece of the spectacle: the lowering of the two countries' flags in a well-choreographed performance of glares, foot-stomping, and other aggressive maneuvers. While this daily ritual at the India-Pakistan border derives largely from British tradition, war dances are not new to the subcontinent. From the Maring Naga war dances from the north-east and Chau in Odisha to the Khattak attan in Peshawar, the custom is ancient as war itself. Two Friends and Officers Set up Wagah Check Post In October 1947, Brigadier Mohinder Singh Chopra, a 1928 graduate from Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and a decorated officer, was tasked with defending the open and turbulent Punjab border between the two countries. After taking command of the 123rd Indian Infantry Brigade in Amritsar, also his hometown, Chopra set about translating the cartographic division into an actual border on land. With no markers available this was an impossible challenge but one that had to be met. On the Pakistani side, a similar responsibility was handed to Commanding Officer Nazir Ahmed, who had served with Chopra in the pre-partition British Indian Army, the two were close friends. Chopra and Ahmed decided to meet at Wagah village and agreed to set up a temporary check post there. To ensure smooth transfer of people they also set up a point between Attari in India and Wagah. Chopra recalled in his journal, which was later published as a book ( 1947: A Soldier's Story- From the records of Maj Gen Mohindar Singh Chopra), 'some tents were pitched on either side, two sentry boxes painted in the national colours of each country, and a swing gate to regulate the refugee traffic was erected. Two flag masts were also put up on either side and a brass plate commemorating the historic event was installed.' In Sadat Hasan Manto's tragic short story Toba Tek Singh about the utter confusion caused by the partition and the transfer of inmates from Lahore's mental asylum, it is at the no-man's land between the Pakistani and Indian check posts that the grief-stricken Bishan Singh collapses. Thanks to the friendship between the two army officers, the Punjab sector remained largely peaceful during the first India-Pakistan war, which broke out in Kashmir in October 1947. Since then, India and Pakistan have fought three large scale wars and numerous smaller conflicts, like the one just concluded. During each conflict the movement of people at Wagah-Attari border as well as the war dance is suspended. Ironically, this performance in stage decorated with barbed wire, steel gates, scaffolding and uniformed guards seeking to flaunt its power to the other and to their respective publics, also ends up showcasing the similitude between them. That may be a nuanced interpretation but at its core this ritual at Wagah is emblematic of the rivalry between the conjoined twins locked in endless conflict. Author Jisha Menon wrote in her work, The Performance of Nationalism: India, Pakistan, and the Memory of Partition: 'The Wagah border rituals dramatise the national mimicry between India and Pakistan. The competitiveness and one-upmanship that shapes the relations between the two nations converge on ideas of identity and difference. This national mimicry, however, is amply demonstrated in other arenas as well; for example, in May 1998, Pakistan carried out six nuclear tests in response to India's five. Thus, the logic of this national mimicry extends to the more dangerous nuclear race between the two countries, explicitly dramatizing what is at stake in the serious play of theatre that at once marks and troubles the notion of national difference'. Manto summed up the pain of partition and its madness with characteristic wryness. 'There behind wire, on one side, lay India and behind more barbed wire, on the other side, lay Pakistan. In between, on a bit of earth which had no name, lay Toba Tek Singh', he wrote. (Valay Singh is a journalist and author. Views expressed are personal.) Get 360° coverage—from daily headlines to 100 year archives.
Time of India
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Attari-Wagah Border beating retreat ceremony resumes after 12 days: 2 news changes implemented
After a 12-day suspension, the iconic Beating Retreat ceremony at the Attari-Wagah border resumed on May 20, 2025, with two major changes aimed at strengthening security and minimising cross-border interactions. The ceremony, a daily ritual that draws thousands of spectators to the border near Amritsar, had been temporarily halted following heightened security concerns. The Beating Retreat ceremony is a symbol of both national pride and disciplined coordination between the Border Security Force (BSF) of India and the armed forces from the other side. It traditionally includes a dramatic display of military drills, flag-lowering, and a symbolic handshake between soldiers from both sides. The event has long been a tourist magnet, particularly for visitors to Amritsar and surrounding regions. Read more: Top 10 national parks in India ranked by tiger population However, rising concerns following the terrorist assault on April 22 were reflected in the recent decision to halt the ceremony. Following this, the BSF cancelled the retreat ceremonies at the border outposts of Attari, Hussainiwala, and Sadqi, citing security concerns. With the ceremony now resumed, two major changes have been implemented: Closed gates during the ceremony Earlier, the flag-lowering ceremony included a dramatic moment when the countries' border gates were momentarily opened. To reduce any possible risk resulting from close physical proximity, this practice has now been discontinued, and the gates will be closed during the event. No cross-border handshake The traditional handshake between the armed forces of the two nations, which symbolised mutual respect despite political differences, has also been dropped. This further diminishes the direct interaction between the two parties during the ceremony. Although the ceremony's essential components—the coordinated exercise and patriotic fervor—remain the same, these modifications represent a cautious change in the way such public gatherings are handled in the face of unstable geopolitical realities. Read more: 5 Buddhist sites in Andhra that feel like time travel Tourism had taken a hit during the suspension, impacting local vendors and businesses that depend on the daily crowd. With the ceremony's return, even in a restricted format, there's renewed optimism in the region. According to the BSF, security will remain the top priority while maintaining the ceremony's cultural significance. India's intention to preserve public participation and national pride while adjusting to changing security conditions near the international border is reflected in this action. One step to a healthier you—join Times Health+ Yoga and feel the change
India Gazette
20-05-2025
- Politics
- India Gazette
Beating Retreat resumes at Attari-Wagah border after suspension due to Operation Sindoor
Amritsar (Punjab) [India], May 20 (ANI): Crowds returned to the Attari-Wagah border and other key Joint Check Posts in Punjab on Tuesday, as the iconic Beating Retreat ceremony resumed today after a temporary suspension due to Operation Sindoor. Earlier in the day, the Border Security Force (BSF) announced the resumption of the ceremonial evening retreat at all three Joint Check Posts (JCPs) along the Punjab frontier. The Beating Retreat ceremony, also known as the flag-lowering event, at the Attari-Wagah, Hussainiwala, and Sadqi Joint Check Posts (JCPs) of the BSF had been suspended on May 9 due to Operation Sindhoor. The ceremony will be thrown open to the general public, starting Wednesday, marking a return to normalcy at these key border points. The retreat ceremony, a popular attraction showcasing India's military discipline and cultural pride, is conducted jointly by the BSF and their Pakistani counterparts at designated border points. In Punjab, the three prominent JCPs where the ceremony is held are Attari (Amritsar district), Hussainiwala (Ferozepur district), and Sadiqi (Fazilka district). BSF officials have ensured that all necessary security and safety arrangements are in place to manage the expected influx of visitors. Following the recent terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam, tensions escalated between India and Pakistan, leading to the suspension of the daily retreat ceremony at the three key Joint Check Posts along the international border. However, with the gradual de-escalation of tensions, it has now been decided to resume the ceremonial flag-lowering ritual at all three locations. Earlier in April, the BSF had announced that it would scale down the ceremonial display during the retreat ceremony at Attari, Hussainiwala, and Sadki in Punjab. In a post on X, BSF had stated, 'In the wake of the recent tragic attack in Pahalgam, a calibrated decision has been taken to scale down the ceremonial display during the Retreat Ceremony at Attari, Hussainiwala and Sadki in Punjab.' The key changes included the suspension of the symbolic handshake between the Indian Guard Commander and their Pakistani counterpart will be suspended. (ANI)
