August 1965 · Indian-administered Kashmir Theater

Pakistan launched Operation Gibraltar, infiltrating thousands of soldiers disguised as locals into Indian-administered Kashmir to spark an uprising against Indian rule. But the Kashmiri population did not rise; instead many reported the infiltrators, and the Indian Army moved to seal the passes and hunt them down, escalating the confrontation.

August 28, 1965 · Kashmir (Pir Panjal range) Theater

To cut the infiltration routes, Indian troops stormed the strategic Haji Pir Pass, a key crossing on the ceasefire line, in a difficult mountain assault led with conspicuous daring. The capture of the pass sealed a major infiltration route into the Kashmir Valley.

September 1, 1965 · Chamb sector, Jammu Theater

Pakistan launched a powerful armoured thrust in the Chamb sector, aiming to cut off Indian Kashmir at Akhnoor. The attack made rapid early gains against outnumbered Indian forces, but a controversial change of command mid-battle slowed the Pakistani advance, and India responded by opening a new front against Lahore to relieve the pressure.

September 8–10, 1965 · Khem Karan sector, Punjab Theater

Pakistan's elite 1st Armoured Division, spearheaded by American-supplied Patton tanks, drove toward Khem Karan — straight into an Indian trap. The Indians flooded the sugarcane fields by breaching canals, bogging the Pattons in soft ground, then destroyed them from concealed positions. Havildar Abdul Hamid knocked out several tanks with a recoilless rifle before being killed, winning a posthumous Param Vir Chakra. So many Pattons were destroyed or captured that the battlefield was dubbed 'Patton Nagar' — Patton Town.

September 14–19, 1965 · Sialkot sector, Pakistan Theater

In the Sialkot sector, India launched its own great armoured offensive toward Chawinda, colliding with Pakistan's armour in one of the largest tank battles since the Second World War — hundreds of tanks manoeuvring across the Punjab plain. The Pakistani defence held, and the Indian thrust was fought to a costly standstill amid heavy losses on both sides.

September 21–22, 1965 · Lahore front, Punjab Theater

In one of the war's fiercest infantry actions, the 3rd Battalion of the Jat Regiment stormed the fortified town of Dograi on the outskirts of Lahore in a night attack, clearing it in savage house-to-house and hand-to-hand fighting to reach the Ichhogil Canal within sight of the city.

September 1965 – January 1966 · Diplomatic (Tashkent, USSR) Theater

With both armies exhausted and neither able to win a decisive victory, a UN-brokered ceasefire ended the fighting in late September. In January 1966 the Soviet Union mediated the Tashkent Declaration, under which both sides withdrew to their pre-war positions. Hours after signing, the Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri died suddenly of a heart attack in Tashkent.

May 1999 · Kargil district, Ladakh Theater

Over the winter of 1998–99, Pakistani soldiers and militants secretly crossed the Line of Control and occupied unmanned mountain peaks overlooking the strategic Srinagar–Leh highway near Kargil, at altitudes above 16,000 feet. Their discovery in May 1999 by shepherds and patrols revealed a major incursion, and India mobilised for war to retake the heights.

May – June 1999 · Dras sector, Kargil Theater

The battle for Tololing peak, dominating the Dras sector and the vital highway, was the grinding turning point of the Kargil War. Indian infantry made repeated frontal assaults up near-vertical, exposed slopes against dug-in defenders on the summits, taking heavy casualties before finally securing the peak after weeks of brutal high-altitude fighting.

July 4, 1999 · Dras sector, Kargil Theater

Tiger Hill, a dominating peak at over 16,000 feet, was assaulted in a daring night climb up sheer cliffs, combined with massive artillery support including Bofors guns firing in the direct role. After a desperate battle on the summit, in which a gravely wounded Grenadier Yogendra Singh Yadav scaled the final cliff under fire, the peak was taken — a victory broadcast triumphantly across India.

July 4–7, 1999 · Mushkoh Valley, Kargil Theater

In the final assaults of the war, Captain Vikram Batra led the capture of the formidable Point 4875 in the Mushkoh Valley, personally leading a charge to clear the last enemy bunker before he was killed. His radio call-sign after an earlier victory — 'Yeh Dil Maange More' ('This heart wants more') — and his fearless leadership made him the war's greatest hero, awarded a posthumous Param Vir Chakra.