Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman arrived in Assam on Tuesday afternoon to celebrate Diwali with army personnel and their families in the state and Arunachal Pradesh.

On arrival at Chabua in Upper Assam’s Dibrugarh district, she was received by General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Command, Lt Gen. M.M. Naravane and general officer commanding Spear Corps, Lt Gen. Gopal R.

She then proceeded to the headquarters of the 2nd Mountain Division at Dinjan in Dibrugarh district where she was briefed by army officials on the security situation in Upper Assam and operational preparedness along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China.

At Dinjan, she also interacted with veer naris (war widows) and ex-servicemen and distributed sweets.

On Wednesday, Sitharam will visit forward posts in Arunachal Pradesh to celebrate Diwali with the soldiers. Arunachal Pradesh is of strategic importance as it is located at the confluence of the international borders of China, Myanmar and Bhutan.

“Sitharaman will visit two forward posts, at Anini and Andra La-Omkar, to celebrate Diwali with the troops on Wednesday,” an official source said.

The distance between the high altitude post of Andra La-Omkar and the nearest roadhead is nearly 40km.

She is also expected to conduct an aerial survey of the area bordering China.

“Lt Gen. Naravane and other senior army officials will accompany Sitharaman during the visit,” the source said.

“Continuing the tradition of celebrating Diwali with the families of our soldiers, Smt @nsitharaman will celebrate Diwali this year at Dinjan (Assam), Andra La-Omkar and Anini (Arunachal Pradesh),” the defence ministry had tweeted on Monday night.

Last year, she had celebrated Diwali with military personnel at tri-services command in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which has the country’s only joint integrated defence command, the Andaman Nicobar Command, that guards the last outpost of India’s territory.