Prem Nath Hoon

Prem Nath Hoon (4 October 1929 – 6 January 2020) was an Indian military officer who was the General Officer Commander in Chief of the Western Army of the Indian Armed Forces from 1986 to 1987. He had commanded mountain brigades, infantry brigades, infantry division and the XV Corps in Kashmir.

He participated in the 1962 Sino-Indian War and the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War. In 1984, he led Operation Meghdoot, the Indian Armed Forces operation to capture the Siachen Glacier in the Kashmir region. He was also involved in Operation Brasstacks, the biggest military exercise since World War II.

Biography Early life Prem Nath Hoon was born on 4 October 1929 in Abbottabad (now in Pakistan) in North West Frontier Province of British India. His father Pran Nath Hoon was a railway officer. He was associated with the Indian National Congress and participated in the Indian independence movement from 1936 to 1947.

Military career Hoon joined the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun in 1947. Air Marshal Randhir Singh rejected his claim and called it his "own perception". Colonel K. S. Pathak said that the military personnel in Delhi might have been mobilized for other reasons.

Prem Nath Hoon was associated with Shiv Sena and headed the ex-servicemen wing of the party from 1999 to 2005. He later ran a car dealership in Chandigarh. In 2013, he had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Prem Nath Hoon died on 6 January 2020 in Command Hospital, Chandimandir following brain hemorrhage. His cremation rites were performed the next day at Sector 25 cremation ground in Chandigarh.

Personal life He had a son and a daughter.