New Delhi, 18/4: Lieutenant General Manoj Pande has been appointed as the next chief of the Indian Army. Lt-Gen Pandey will be the 29th Army chief and first officer from the Corps of Engineers to become the Chief of Army Staff succeeding General Manoj Mukund Naravane who is scheduled to complete his 28-month tenure on April 30.
The defence ministry on Monday announced: “Government has decided to appoint Lt Gen Manoj Pande as the next chief of army staff.”
Lt-Gen Pandey, an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, was commissioned into the Corps of Engineers in December 1982. The officer commanded an engineer regiment during Operation Parakram in the Pallanwala sector along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. The operation, which involved large-scale mobilisation of troops and weapons to the western border, followed the December 2001 terror attack on Parliament that brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war.