PUNE (PTI): Lieutenant General S K Saini, a decorated Army officer, assumed charge as the head of Pune-based Southern Command of Indian Army on Monday.

According to an official release, on his first day in office, the General Officer laid a wreath at the National War Memorial to pay homage to the martyrs and later reviewed an impressive guard of honour at the headquarters.

"The current assignment of the General Officer is a testimony of his continued dedication to service which began with his commissioning in June 1981.

"Prior to the current assignment, he was Director General (Manpower and Personnel Services) at Army Headquarters, New Delhi," said the release.

An alumnus of Sainik School Kapurthala, the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla and the Indian Military Academy Dehradun, he was commissioned into 7 Jat Regiment in June 1981, it said.

He has commanded a battalion, a mountain brigade, a counter insurgency force in J&K and a corps in the Western Theatre.

His staff experience includes tenanting the appointments of Brigade Major of an infantry brigade, General Staff Officer-1 (Operations) of an infantry division and Director in Military Operations Branch at the Army Headquarters, the release said.

Besides, he has been a weapons instructor in the National Security Guards Training Centre, Senior Directing Staff at the National Defence College, New Delhi and Commandant of the Indian Military Academy.

In his last appointment as the Director General (Manpower and Personnel Services), he initiated a number of significant refinements in human resource polices of all ranks, the release said.

Lt Gen Saini holds three Masters degrees in defence and strategic studies and is an avid reader and writer.

The senior Army officer has also served as the Deputy Chief Military Personnel Officer in the UN Mission in Iraq-Kuwait, attended an exercise on peacekeeping conducted by the Global Peace Operations Initiative in Mongolia and a counter-terrorism exercise in Australia, the release added.