CHANDIGARH: Indian Army chief General Dalbir Singh visited the Western Command, headquartered at Chandimandir near here, on Saturday to review operational preparedness in wake of surgical strikes across the Line of Control in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir recently.

HT PHOTOArmy chief General Dalbir Singh (left) with Western command chief Lt Gen Surinder Singh at Chandimandir on Saturday.

The army chief interacted with senior commanders, including Western Command general officer commandingin-chief (GOC-in-C) Lieutenant General Surinder Singh, and exhorted them to continue to maintain highest vigil and alertness on the western borders.

Earlier, he had visited the Northern Command.

A senior official of the Western Command said: “There is no troop mobilisation or deployment along the border, but routine army exercises are continuing.”

At present, it is the Border Security Force (BSF) that is manning the International Border with Pakistan in Punjab.

But no army official who HT talked to has denied that an alert has been sounded to all forward posts and cantonments.

In the past seven days, Lt Gen Surinder Singh has twice reviewed security arrangements along the border. On September 23 and 24, he had visited forward areas in Jammu, Samba and Pathankot, where he interacted with field commanders and troops, besides meeting the northern army commander.

On September 29 — the day the news of the surgical strikes broke out in the morning — the army commander embarked on a two-day tour to the Vajra Corps headquarters in Jalandhar besides forward locations in Gurdaspur and Amritsar to review the troops’ preparedness.