NEW DELHI – Lt Gen Ranbir Singh, Director General Military Operation (DGMO)has been appointed the new chief of the crucial Udhampur-based NorthernCommand.

He will replace Lt Gen Devraj Anbu, who will take over as the new ViceChief of Army Staff, who in turn is replacing Lt Gen Sarath Chand, whoretires on May 31.

Commissioned in Sikh Light Infantry in 1980, Lt Gen Anbu commanded a Corpin North East.

Lt Gen Ranbir Singh, a Dogra regiment infantry officer, was also at thehelm of affairs during a surgical strike in Myanmar in 2015, launching anattack on Naga insurgents. He could be in the race for Army Chief after theGen Bipin Rawat retires next year.

Lt Gen Singh was commissioned in the Indian Army in 1980 and has heldseveral important positions. As Northern Command Chief, he will beoverlooking the crucial operations of the Army in Jammu and Kashmir alongthe Line of Control and anti terror operations in the hinterland.