Gen. Dalbir Singh Suhag takes over as Army chief Friday Aug 01,2014

Gen. Dalbir Singh Suhag, whose appointment as Army Chief had kicked up a row, today took over as the head of the 1.3 million strong force succeeding Gen Bikram Singh.

 Gen. Suhag assumed charge after his predecessor handed over to him the Chief of Army Staff baton in his South Block office here.

The new Chief takes over at a time when the force is facing challenges of modernsation in its artillery, infantry and air defence arms and is also preparing itself for facing a possible multi-front war.

59-year-old Gen. Suhag, a Gurkha officer who had participated in the 1987 Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) operation in Sri Lanka, was till now the Vice Chief of Army Staff. 

He will have a tenure of 30 months as the 26th Army Chief. Gen.

 Suhag was made the Vice Chief of Army Staff in December last year. 

Before that, he was the Eastern Army Commander from June 16, 2012.

 He was at the centre of a controversy triggered by ’discipline and vigilance’ ban imposed on him by the then Army Chief Gen V K Singh in connection with an intelligence operation in Assam earlier.

On his first day in office on Friday Aug 01,2014, Army Chief Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag on Friday warned Pakistan that India’s response to any beheading-like incident in future would be “more than adequate, intense and immediate”.

“I can tell you that our response to any such act will be more than adequate in future. It will be intense and immediate,”