The India connection runs deeply '" and unhappily '" in the family of the next Pakistan army chief, Lt Gen. Raheel Sharif. His brother, Major Shabbir Sharif, won a gallantry award in the 1965 war with India.

For his stellar role in the 1971 war -- during which he was reported to have caught a grenade hurled at his company from an Indian bunker and hurled it back near Sulemanki on the western front -- Major Sharif was awarded Pakistan's top military honour, the Nishan-e-Haidar.  Read