Lt Gen Sengupta succeeds Lt Gen Menon as commander of Fire & Fury Corps on Kargil-Leh belt

In a fresh development, the Leh-based Fire and Fury Corps in Siachen will be now led by a new commander as the tenure of the incumbent Lt Gen PGK Menon ends this month. The XIV Corps of the Indian Army will soon be headed by Lt Gen Anindya Sengupta. Lt Gen Sengupta will be the new commander of the corps protecting the sensitive borders and is expected to take charge by the end of this month.

The decision comes as the military standoff between India and China continues at LAC & Eastern Ladakh, since both nations hit a stalemate in the talks. The Fire and Fury corps are deployed on the Kargil-Leh belt and are at frontiers with China on one side and Pakistan on another.

Lt Gen. Anindya Sengupta succeeds Lt Gen. PGK Menon as commander of Fire & Fury Corps

Lt Gen. Anindya Sengupta will succeed Lt Gen. PGK Menon, who would be leaving after a year-long stint, during which he represented India in repeated discussions with China to end the conflict in Eastern Ladakh.

"Lt Gen Sengupta is going to take over as the next commander of the Fire and Fury Corps and would be heading the talks from the Indian side with the Chinese whenever they take place," government sources told ANI.

Due to the sheer complex nature of the corps which is responsible for looking over both the China and Pakistan borders, the newly appointed Corps Commander will spend about a fortnight with his predecessor to learn about every aspect of the area and the difficulties it faces, sources informed ANI.

Currently, Lt Gen Sengupta is posted to the Army Headquarters. Before arriving at the Army headquarters, he served in the Punjab Regiment and also headed a counter-terrorist force in the Kashmir valley.

The Kargil sector and the Eastern Ladakh sector have been targeted by the opponents several times in the past 20 years. For more than three decades, the Corps has been in control of the Siachen area, which is the world's highest and coldest battleground. After Chinese aggression in the Eastern Ladakh region in April-May last year, India and China have been in a military standoff for almost two years. 

With ANI Inputs

Image: ANI