Northern Army Commander visits Galwan, Army tweets rare pictures with tricolour

Northern Army Commander Lt Gen. Upendra Dwivedi interacting with army personnel at forward areas along LAC | Photo: @NorthernComd_IA/ Twitter

New Delhi: The newly appointed Northern Army Commander Lt Gen. Upendra Dwivedi visited the Galwan Valley and ‘ground zero’ in forward areas in Ladakh Monday. The Army posted pictures on social media of his interaction with soldiers, with an Indian flag featuring in the backdrop. 

This is the first time the Army has released photographs of a top officer visiting the Galwan Valley, which had witnessed a deadly clash between Indian and Chinese troops in June 2020.

The Army tweeted saying he visited “ground zero at forward areas” along LAC to review the security situation and “appreciated the professionalism and operational response towards the evolving threat matrix”.

Although the Army did not mention the location as Galwan Valley, sources in the Army Headquarters confirmed that one of the pictures is from the Galwan Valley where he interacted with the Dogra Regiment.

The picture also showed the Dogra flag in the background, which has been mistaken for the Tibetan flag in the past on social media.

Even though disengagement had taken place subsequently with the creation of a buffer zone, the valley has been a subject of propaganda tool for China’s People’s Liberation Army. There have been instances where PLA has posted videos and pictures of them hoisting the Chinese flag in the area and projecting it to be on Indian soil.

The Indian Army has retaliated against such psychological operation earlier but this is the first time it has tweeted a picture of a senior officer visiting ‘ground zero’.

Army Commander meets SFF troops, visits DBO

Sources said during his visit to forward postings along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), Lt Gen. Dwivedi also met officers and men from the Special Frontier Force (SFF), an elite unit of the Army which is predominantly made up of ethnic Tibetans.

Army sources also said that the top officer in charge of Ladakh also visited the Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO), an area the Chinese have been eyeing to dominate.

The Army Commander was briefed in detail on the overall situation along the LAC at the Headquarters of the Leh-based Fire and Fury Corps, also known as the 14 Corps which is headed by Lt Gen Anindya Sengupta.

(Edited by Monami Gogoi)