After serving at various strategic postings in the Indian Army during his career spanning 39 years, Lt. Gen. Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon on Monday retired as Director General of Defence Intelligence Agency and Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (Intelligence).
Lt. Gen. Dillon, who had also lead the Chinar Corps as a Commander during the abrogation of Article 370 and Article 35A in Jammu and Kashmir, shared a picture of him wearing his combat dress for one last time on Monday and Twitterati got emotional.
Dhillon came in the spotlight immediately after taking over as the Corps commander of XV Corps when security forces eliminated Kamran alias ‘Ghazi’, mastermind of the February 2019 terror attack on CRPF personnel in Pulwama that left 40 jawans dead.
“Kitne Ghazi aaye aur kitne gaye, hum yahin hain dekh lenge sabko,” he said during a press conference to announce the success. His statement had went viral on social media.
Lt. Gen Dhillon has also shared a video in which his colleagues can be seen giving him a warm-farewell by following the old army tradition of singing the "He is a jolly good fellow" song.
Popularly known as 'Tiny Dhillon', Dhillon also earned widespread appreciation for initiating ‘Operation Maa’ during his tenure as the head of Kashmir-based XV Corps where he approached the families especially mothers of misguided youths who had joined militancy and requested them to bring back their children into the national mainstream.
Lt. Gen. Dhillon handed over the charge of Defence Intelligence Agency to Lt Gen GAV Reddy.