Srinagar: General Officer Commanding of Srinagar based 15 Corps, Lt Gen D P Pandey on Thursday said that Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Bipin Rawat had a very close connection not only with the people of Baramulla but with the whole of Kashmir.
Lt Gen Pandey attended a solemn ceremony which was organized in Baramulla by the Army to pay homage to India’s first Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Bipin Rawat. The GOC Dagger Division, Maj Gen Ajay Chandpuri and prominent personals from civil and district administration also paid their homage to Gen Rawat and the others killed in the chopper crash on Wednesday.
General Rawat had served as GOC of the Baramulla based sensitive Dagger Division from July 2011. During his tenure in Baramulla, he was known as the “peoples General.”
“I do not think I have seen the amount of love, connect which he had with the people of Uri and Baramulla and with the people of the whole of Kashmir,” Lt Gen Pandey told reporters in Baramulla. “If you see the DP(display picture on social media), especially the media-men, I think everyone has a picture with him.”
The Corps Commander said Gen Rawat used to attend phone calls from everyone from here and listen to their requirements and problems.
“And then he used to call me and ask me to listen to their demands and help them. I am sure the people of Baramulla have lost more than anyone else,” he added.
Lt Gen Pandey said on Thursday that he went to a battalion where Gen Rawat was a company commander in the initial stages.
“I really wanted to come here to Baramulla where he was the GoC. Though he was also the commander of 5 Sector (Rashtriya Rifles), the two tenures were close to his heart especially because of the people. I am sure you all must be feeling this loss like the Indian Army, Armed forces and the whole country is feeling,”
“His wife and other officers were also killed and this is a huge tragedy and it will take a lot of time for us to come out of this grief,” he added.
