Lt General Ranbir Singh assumes charge of new northern army commander

Srinagar: Lieutenant General Ranbir Singh, who supervised the surgical strikes as Director General Military Operation (DGMO) assumed the charge of the significant new northern army commander.

He has replaced lieutenant general Dev Raj Anbu.

During the tenure of Singh as DGMO, eleven days after the Uri attack, the Indian army reported it conducted surgical strikes against suspected militants in Pakistani-administered Kashmir on 29 September, 2016.

However, two years after the operations, there seemed to be no impact of surgical strikes as it could not stop the infiltration, neither the recruitment in the hinterland.

According to the defence statement, Singh was commissioned into the 9th Battalion of the Dogra Regiment in 1980 and has had varied staff and command exposures.

He has commanded a mountain brigade, an armoured division and a strike corps.

“His tenures also include United Nations Peace keeping assignment at Rwanda and Chief Operations Officer at Sudan. Besides other staff and instructional appointments, he has had multiple tenures in Military Operations Directorate in various ranks including as Director General Military Operations of Indian Army,” the statement added.

Prior to taking over as the Northern Army Commander he was tenating the appointment of Deputy Chief of Army Staff.

The northern command is considered to be the all time important as it looks after borders with not too friendly countries china and Pakistan.