Lt.Gen. Abhay Krishna new Eastern Command chief

Lt Gen Abhay Krishna, who has extensive service experience of the northeast, will take over as new chief of the Indian Army's Eastern Command on Tuesday, succeeding Lt Gen Praveen Bakshi who has retired from service, an official statement said.

The appointment of Krishna, who has done four terms of duty along the Line of Actual Control on the northern borders, comes at a time when a stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops continues along the Sikkim sector.

Commissioned into the Rajputana Rifles in 1980, he has commanded an infantry battalion in Sikkim, was responsible for planning operations as Brigadier General Staff of the Dimapur-based 3 Corps and later commanded an infantry division and a corps in the same area.

A gallantry award winner for counter-insurgency operations in Manipur, he had also commanded a Rashtriya Rifles Battalion in the Kashmir Valley.

He has served twice as an UN observer, in Mozambique and Rwanda and Burundi.

Krishna was currently head of the Army's Jaipur-based Southwestern Command.

--IANS

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