Lt General AK Bhatt gets Cabinet approval as new DGMO

New Delhi: The appointments committee of the Union Cabinet on Monday approved the appointment of Lieutenant-General A.K. Bhatt as the new director-general of military operations.

From the famed Gorkha Rifles, Lt. Gen. Bhatt was posted at the Army headquarters. He will succeed Lt. Gen. Ranbir Singh who will move to command the 1 Strike Corps at Mathura, one of the Army’s three assault forces.

Besides being responsible for the planning and conduct of all military operations, the DGMO’s post has assumed additional responsibilities in recent months with Lt Gen Singh briefing the media directly whether it be addressing the surgical strikes on militants near the Indo-Myanmar border or the September 28-29 counter-terror surgical strikes across LoC with Pakistan.

Lt. Gen. Bhatt will also be the only Army official with access to the official hotline contact with his Pakistani counterpart.

The Cabinet has already sent out the necessary communications to the defence ministry in this regard, said a release by the department of personnel and training.

Incidentally, on Sunday, Pakistan got a new Army chief in Lieutenant General Qamar Javed Bajwa an experienced hand in combating militancy in Waziristan and Pakistan’s northern areas besides wide military experience in areas along the LoC.