Lt Gen Abhay Krishna new chief of Eastern Command

NEW DELHI: Lt. Gen. Abhay Krishna has been appointed as head of the Army's crucial Eastern Command which guards a major part of Sino-India border including the Sikkim sector where armies of India and China have been locked in a face-off.

Lt. Gen. Krishna, who was heading the Army's South Western Command and has vast experience of the Sikkim sector, succeeds Lt. Gen. Praveen Bakshi, who retired today.

"Lt Gen Abhay Krishna brings with him a great measure of professional competence and vast operational experience," the Army said in a statement.


He has served four tenures along the Line of Actual Control on the northern borders and commanded an infantry battalion in Sikkim. He had also commanded an infantry division and a Corps in the Northeast.

Krishna will assume charge of the Eastern command tomorrow.

He is a gallantry award winner in counter insurgency operations in Manipur and commanded Rashtriya Rifles Battalion in the Kashmir Valley.

He had also served two tenures as UN observer in Mozambique and Rawanda and another in Burundi.

In December, Lt. Gen. Bakshi was the front runner for the post of the army chief. However, keeping aside the trend of seniority being the lone criteria, the government appointed Lt Gen Bipin Rawat.

Rawat was a batch junior to Lt Gen Bakshi.

The military standoff between armies of India and China began on June 16 when Chinese troops attempted to lay a road in the Dokalam area in the Bhutan-India-China tri-junction.

India and China share a 220-km-long border in Sikkim section.