Chandigarh, Sep 15 (Inditop.com) Indian Army’s frontline Western Command Tuesday celebrated its 62nd raising day at its ‘war memorial’ (Veer Smriti) here at Chandimandir military station.
Lt Gen M.S. Buttar, chief of staff of Western Command, initiated the celebrations with a wreath laying ceremony at the war memorial. It was followed by soul-stirring ‘salami shastra’ and ‘shoka shastra’ salutes to pay homage to the brave martyrs of the command.
Raised on Sep 15, 1947, Western Command was popularly known as the Delhi and East Punjab (DEP) area command. Lt Gen Dudley Russel was the first army commander of this command.
DEP Command was formally named ‘Western Command’ on Jan 18, 1948. In 1954, its headquarters moved to Shimla from Delhi and in February 1985 it was moved to its present location at Chandimandir, about 10 km from here.
“Western Command played a cardinal role in all the wars since independence. It was instrumental in effectively subduing the Pakistani aggressions in 1947, 1965 and 1971,” said an official spokesperson of the Indian Army here.
“Apart from playing a significant role in war victories, Western Command was instrumental in combating terrorism in Punjab and in restoring normalcy and faith of civilians through its operation ‘Rakshak’,” he said.
Personnel of the command are actively engaged in counter insurgency operations in Jammu region. They have trained nine battalions of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the training of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) battalions is under progress at Chandimandir.
