Rookmangud Katawal

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General Rookmangud Katawal is the ex-Chief of Army Staff of the Nepali Army.

He received military training in Nepal, India, Pakistan, the United States and the United Kingdom. In 1988 he became the Chief Military Personnel Officer of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.^[1][2] General Katawal was appointed as Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) of the Nepalese Army on 10 September 2006. Earlier, he was Chief of General Staff from 10 September 2004 to 10 September 2006 in the rank of Lieutenant General, and commanded the then Western Division in the peak of counterinsurgency operations between December 2003 and August 2004. General Katawal is also 'Colonel Commandant' of his old battalion, Shree Pashupati Prasad.

On 29 December 2001, General Katawal was appointed the first co-coordinator of the National Security Council Secretariat. He also served as the Adjutant General (AG) and the Director of Military Intelligence of the Nepalese Army, and as the Commandant of the Royal Nepalese Military Academy. He holds the distinction of having commanded three consecutive Brigades, two Infantry and one Special Forces. He has also served in the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) in the Suez Canal area, and has been the Nepalese Government's Liaison Officer to the Brigade of Gurkhas of the British Army and Government of Hong Kong, and the Chief Military Personnel Officer of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

A graduate of the Indian National Defence Academy and the Indian Military Academy, he holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Nepal's Tribhuwan University and a Masters Degree in National Defence from Pakistan's Quaid-i-Azam University. General Katawal is also the Distinguished International Honour Graduate of the US Special Forces Course, and earned the coveted Gideon in the U.S. Ranger Course. He is also a graduate of the Army Command and Staff College, Camberley UK, the Senior Command Course, India and the National Defence University, Islamabad, Pakistan.

He has been fiercely resisting group integration of Maoist rebels into the National Army and has been at odds with Maoist government on several other issues. Controversy surrounding his relationship with the ruling government, largely focused on recruiting issues, led to his brief sacking on May 3, 2009.^[3] Protests in response to his sacking included the withdrawal of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) from the ruling coalition government.^[4] The CPN-Maoists at the head of the coalition then named Lt. General Kul Bahadur Khadka as a replacement COAS. Shortly afterwards, the President of Nepal overrode both decisions and ordered him to continue his service.^[5] This resulted in Prime Minister Prachanda's resignation and a general collapse of the government.^[6]

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