At the outbreak of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, the 2nd Maratha Light Infantry (also called the Kali Panchwin) was based in Mathura when it deployed a small unit to Hussainiwala in the Firozpur sector of Punjab.

It defended the headworks against an attack by a full infantry brigade supported by armoured columns of the Pakistan Army.

On 3 December, at 18:35, units from Pakistan's 106th infantry brigade launched an attack on the village, which was defended by the 15th Punjab Battalion (formerly First Patiala).

They are listed as missing by the Indian Government along with 52 others, including Major Ashok Suri who wrote a letter to his father in 1975 from Karachi stating that he was alive and well.

[citation needed] The border crossing, 10 km from district headquarters Ferozepur,[1] has a ruined fort, National Martyrs Memorial and a daily beating retreat flag ceremony, all three in the same compound manned by India's Border Security Forces.

At the Hussainiwala–Ganda Singh Wala border crossing, a flag beating retreat ceremony has been held every day at 6 pm since 1970 by the military of both nations.

At one point during the ceremony, an Indian BSF soldier and a Pakistani Ranger cross over the borderline to collect the flags of their respective nations.

Hussainniwala is the site of the National Martyrs Memorial, which marks the location where Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were cremated on 23 March 1931.