information:filtering
Military history

Since 1947, Pakistan has been involved in four conventional wars with India. The first conflict occurred in Kashmir, with Pakistan gaining control of Western Kashmir and India retaining Eastern Kashmir. Territorial disputes led to another war in 1965. The 1971 war resulted in Pakistan's unconditional surrender of East Pakistan. Tensions in Kargil brought the two countries to the brink of war. Since 1947, unresolved territorial problems with Afghanistan saw border skirmishes kept mostly at the mountainous border. In 1961, the military and intelligence community repelled an Afghan incursion near the Durand Line border.

During the Soviet-Afghan War, Pakistan's intelligence community, mostly the ISI, coordinated US resources to support Afghan mujahideen and foreign fighters against Soviet presence. The PAF engaged with Soviet and Afghan Air Forces during the conflict. Pakistan has been an active participant in UN peacekeeping missions, playing a major role in operations like the rescue mission in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1993. According to UN reports, the Pakistani military is the third largest troop contributor to UN peacekeeping missions after Ethiopia and India.

Pakistan has deployed its military in some Arab countries, providing defense, training, and advisory roles. The PAF and Navy 's fighter pilots served in Arab nations' militaries against Israel in the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War. Pakistani special forces assisted Saudi forces in Mecca during the Grand Mosque Seizure. Pakistan also sent 5,000 troops as part of a US-led coalition for the defense of Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War.

Despite the UN arms embargo on Bosnia, the ISI under General Javed Nasir airlifted anti-tank weapons and missiles to Bosnian mujahideen, shifting the tide in favor of Bosnian Muslims. ISI, under Nasir's leadership, supported Chinese Muslims in Xinjiang, rebel groups in the Philippines, and religious groups in Central Asia.

Since 2004, the military has been engaged in an insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, primarily against Tehrik-i-Taliban factions. Major operations include Operation Black Thunderstorm, Operation Rah-e-Nijat, and Operation Zarb-e-Azb.