Major General Abdulla Shamaal, chief of the Maldives National Defence Force, called on General Manoj Chandrashekar Pande, chief of the army staff, in New Delhi on Thursday, July 28, 2022.
IMAGE: General Pande welcomes Major General Shamaal on his arrival at the South Block lawns to inspect a Guard of Honour. All photographs: ANI Photo
IMAGE: Major General Shamaal, who turned 53 on July 5, has been trained at the United States Army Infantry School in Fort Benning, the Pakistan Military Academy and the Defence Services Staff College at Wellington in the Nilgiris.
IMAGE: Major General Shamaal has, according to Wikipedia, an MA in Defence and Security Analysis from the University of Lancaster in the UK; an MSc in Defence and Strategic Studies from the University of Madras; an MA in Strategic Security Studies from the National Defense University in Washington DC.
IMAGE: Major General Shamaal knows New Delhi well, having served as defence adviser at the Maldives high commission in the Indian capital from March 2005 to December 2008.
IMAGE: Major General Shamaal was dismissed from the Maldives army despite his sterling record by then Maldivian president Abdulla Yameen in 2013 and reinstated by the high court in Male in December 2018.
President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih then appointed him chief of the Maldives National Defence Force.
President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih then appointed him chief of the Maldives National Defence Force.
IMAGE: The Sikh Regiment presented the Guard of Honour to Major General Shamaal.
IMAGE: Major General Shamaal arrives to pay homage at the National War Memorial.
IMAGE: Major General Shamaal salutes India's Fallen at the National War Memorial.
IMAGE: Major General Shamaal lays a wreath at the National War Memorial.
Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff.com
Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com
