Jammu, Mar 1 : Lt. Gen. P C Bhardwaj on Saturday took over as the chief of the Udhampur-based Northern Command of the Indian Army.

Lt. Gen. Bhardwaj succeeds Lt. Gen. H. S. Panag, who has been transferred to the Lucknow-based Central Command.

Before taking charge, Lt. Gen. Bhardwaj was commanding the Leh-based 14 Corps of the Indian Army that looks after the frontiers with China, Kashmir and also guards the Siachen glacier, the highest battlefield in the world.

Lt. Gen. Bhardwaj has vast experience in the terror-hit Jammu and Kashmir having been the Brigadier General Staff at Nagrota, the headquarters of 16 Corps in 2000-01, when militancy was at its peak and infiltration at its highest level.

He has also commanded the Delta Force, a counter insurgency force in Doda.

An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Indian Military Academy and Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, Lt. Gen. Bhardwaj was commissioned into the first battalion of the Parachute Regiment in June 1970.

He has also received training at Special Forces School, Fort Bragg.

A recipient of Vir Chakra in the 1971 India-Pakistan war, Lt. Gen. Bhardwaj has commanded the elite Parachute Brigade and was the defence attache in Myanmar from 1994 to 1997. (ANI)