The Centre on Monday appointed appointed Indian Army Vice Chief Lieutenant General Manoj Pande as the next chief of the Indian Army. He will take over his new office on May 1.

Pande will be succeeding General Manoj Mukund Naravane who is scheduled to complete his 28 month-tenure on April 30.

"Government has decided to appoint Lieutenant General Manoj Pande as the next chief of army staff," the Defence officials told ANI.

Pande was commissioned into the Corps of Engineers in December 1982. He is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy.

Lieutenant General Pande commanded an engineer regiment during Operation Parakram in the Pallanwala sector along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.

Operation Parakram, the large-scale mobilisation of troops and weapons to the western border, followed the December 2001 terror attack on Parliament that brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war.

Lt General Pande has been in the military since 39 years. He had commanded an engineer brigade in the western theatre, an infantry brigade along LoC, a mountain division in the Ladakh sector and a corps in the northeast.

Before taking charge of the Eastern Command, Pande was the commander-in-chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command.

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