The excellent march past by gentleman cadets, walking on the tunes of ‘Sare Jahan Se Achha’ left the audience spellbound at the passing-out-parade of the Indian Military Academy (IMA) in Dehradun on Saturday. A total of 487 officers graduated from the academy to join the Indian Army. With the army choppers showering flower petals, the gentlemen cadets walked the ‘Antim Pag’ or the ceremonial ‘final step.’ Besides this, 78 foreign gentlemen cadets from seven friendly foreign countries passed out of the IMA.
Bangladesh Army Chief General Abu Belal Muhammad Shafiul Huq was the review officer and addressing the cadets, he complimented them for the excellent parade, immaculate turnout as well as the crisp and energetic drill movements, indicating the high standards of training and discipline imbibed by the young gentlemen cadets.
Uttar Pradesh with 76 officers topped the list of producing maximum number of officers among all other states in this batch. Haryana with 58 and Uttarakhand with 38 finished second and third, respectively, in the tally of states.
Gentlemen cadets were presented individual awards for their performance. Sword of honour and gold medal — for the gentleman cadet for standing first in the overall order of merit — was presented to Chandrakant Acharya, silver medal to Amarpreet Singh and bronze medal to Sourav Das.
Bangladesh Army Chief General Abu Belal Muhammad Shafiul Huq praised the Indian Military Academy for earning world class reputation and acknowledged the commitment of the instructors and staff of the academy for their dedication to the gentlemen cadets.