Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Feb 25: General Officer Commanding of Army’s 15 Corps, Lt General Satish Dua today took over as the Colonel of Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry Regiment, the first General to hold both charges simultaneously in Kashmir.
“In a ceremony held at the Regimental Centre in Rangreth, Lt Gen Satish Dua took over as the 21st Colonel of the Regiment (COR) from Lt Gen Ravi Nair, Director General Recruiting who is set to hang his uniform on February 29,” a defence spokesman said.
The spokesman said Lt Gen Dua is the first General to hold both these vital appointments in the Kashmir valley concurrently.
The Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry Regiment (JAKLI) is home to 20,000 serving soldiers and lakhs of ex-servicemen from Jammu and Kashmir, he said. It is also the only regiment of the Indian Army that recruits men exclusively from Jammu and Kashmir.
The ceremony for changeover commenced with paying of homage to the Regiment’s martyrs at the War Memorial, the spokesman said.
Later, the General Officers addressed all ranks at the end of which the symbolic exchange of baton took place, he added.
Lt Gen Dua joins the ilk of Padma Bhushan Lt Gen M L Chibber and Lt Gen Hari Prasad as the Colonel of the Regiment, he said.