New army chief to visit Jammu and Kashmir (Lead, correcting day in opening para)

JAMMU - New Indian Army chief Gen V.K. Singh will Tuesday begin a three-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir to review the security situation and assess state of preparedness of the army.

Singh, who took over March 31, will visit the three regions of Jammu, Ladakh and Kashmir Valley.

He will meet Northern Command chief Lt Gen B.S. Jaswal and corps commanders to assess preparedness on the Line of Control that divides the state between India and Pakistan, particularly in the light of infiltration from across the border. He will also review deployment along the Line of Actual Control, a borderline with China in Ladakh region, an official said.

“Preparations are on for the visit and each and every detail of the army strategy, its challenges would be placed before the new chief,” he said.

Singh has served in various capacities in the state in the 1990s.

Officials said the army chief would also meet Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and discuss the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) as well as the killing of a 70-year-old man by the army in Kupwara district in north Kashmir last week. Habibullah Khan was dubbed a terrorist but his family said he was a beggar.

Ruling National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah had told reporters in Srinagar on Sunday that the chief minister would take up the killing with the new army chief.

The army chief had last week said dilution of the AFSPA in Jammu and Kashmir and other troubled areas of the state would hurt the operations of the army.