NEW DELHI, Jan 22:
For the first time, Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi today shared the exact moment he was informed about the brutal killing of 26 innocent civilians by terrorists in the Baisaran Valley near Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir on April 22, 2025.
Recalling the incident during a book launch event in the national capital, General Dwivedi said he was in the midst of delivering his address at a retiring officers’ seminar when the tragic news was conveyed to him midway through the speech.
Stating that after that incident, whenever he stands on the rostrum he is reminded of those days, the COAS said, “On April 22, I was talking at the retiring officer seminar? I was three-fourth of my address and suddenly Lt General Rajiv Ghai, who was the DGMO at that time, walks in and he says sir, chhota sa.”
“So, when DGMO says chhota sa, you can make out?. when he is kind of coming in between your talk and saying something, there must be something more. And thereafter you know what happened and it was difficult. At that time the then Northern Army commander (Lieutenant General M.V. Suchendra Kumar) was also sitting because he was also retiring in the same month on April 30.”
“So, he looked at me, I looked at him and he understood and immediately walked out because by that time he also got a slip about what has happened. And rest all is history, you are well aware. So, whenever I stand on the rostrum, I am always reminded of those days that how things were and how fast they were,” Gen Dwivedi recalled. (PTI)
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