By IANS,
Shillong : Lt. Gen. Rameshwar Roy Wednesday took over as the director general of the Assam Rifles, India’s oldest paramilitary force. He succeeds Lt. Gen. Karan Singh Yadava, who has retired.
On arrival here, the general was presented a traditional guard of honour. He later paid homage to the martyrs of the force at the picturesque Assam Rifles war memorial at Laitkor about 20 km from this Meghalaya capital.
Before taking over as the Assam Rifles chief, Roy commanded the prestigious 16 Corps at Nagrota in Jammu and Kashmir.
Commissioned into the 7th battalion of the Jammu & Kashmir Rifles on 17 Jun 1973, Roy has extensively served in counter-insurgency operations in Punjab, Mizoram, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
The Assam Rifles has 46 battalions, 15 of which are deployed along the 1,643-km long unfenced India-Myanmar border. The porous frontier, with its rugged terrain is used by Indian insurgent groups to slip in and out of the country.
Forest and animal products are also smuggled through the border.