Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 24: In less than a fortnight of takeover, Western Command chief Lt Gen Surinder Singh today paid second visit to borders areas of Jammu and Pathankot and later held high level security review meeting with Northern Army Commander Lt Gen DS Hooda and other General Officers Commanding (GOCs).
Lt Gen Singh had taken charge as GOC-in-C Western Command on September 17 and visited all three border districts of Jammu regions including Jammu, Samba and Kathua on September 20. Again, he visited border areas of Jammu and Pathankot for two days on September 23 and 24 to review preparedness of the troops and held series of security review meetings with top Army commanders.
Sources told the Excelsior that Lt Gen Surinder Singh visited Northern Command Headquarters in Udhampur and had detailed inter-action with GOC-in-C Northern Command Lt Gen DS Hooda in the presence of senior Army officers including Rising Star Corps (9 Corps) GOC Lt Gen Praveen Amre and GOC Nagrota based 16 Corps Lt Gen RR Nimbhorkar. The Rising Start Corps looks after 198 kilometers long international boundary from Lakhanpur to Akhnoor though, the border is exclusively manned by Border Security Force (BSF) as a front line force.
The joint meeting of Northern and Western Army Commanders, joined by GOCs of 9 and 16 Corps and other senior Army officers discussed various strategic issues including preparedness of the troops along the borders with Pakistan especially curbing the infiltration attempts in the wake of Uri attack and related issues.
“The top Army commanders had detailed review of emerging security scenario along the Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB) in the wake of statements by top political leadership of the country that Pakistan would have to face consequences of Uri attack,” sources said.
Noting that major focus of the Army remained curbing infiltration attempts along the borders to prevent Pathankot, Poonch and Uri like attacks in future, sources said the troops also discussed and debated the steps required to completely curb infiltration attempts from Pakistan side.
Apart from this, they said, the security of all defence installations in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab also came up for high level review in the meeting of top Army commanders.
According to sources, Lt Gen Surinder Singh also visited border areas of Jammu, Samba and Pathankot, where he inter-acted with field commanders of troops to review their operational preparedness and steps to curb infiltration attempts though, no such major bid has been reported along the IB after January 2 Pathankot attack.
Reiterating the need to maintain high order of operational preparedness and alertness, the Western Command chief appreciated the efforts of Army units and formations. He emphasized for fool-proof security measures in the border areas.
This was second visit of Lt Gen Surinder Singh to border areas of Jammu and Samba during past four days. On September 20, he had visited the border areas of Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts and held detailed security review of the situation prevailing on the borders.
It may be mentioned here that Lt Gen Surinder Singh had taken over the charge of Western Command only on September 17.
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