Ranjit Singh Dyal Ranjit Singh Dyal MVC , PVSM ( 15 November 1928 – 29 January 2012 ) was an Indian Army general and an administrator . As a soldier , Ranjit Singh led the capture of the Haji Pir pass by the Indian army during the 1965 war with Pakistan . He also drew up the plans for Operation Blue Star , and served as the General - Officer - Commanding - in - Chief of the Southern Command . Later , he served as Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands . Early life . Ranjit Singh Dyal was born in a Sikh family of the Tukar village in Punjab , British India ( in the present - day Kurukshetra district of Haryana ) . His father was Sardar Bahadur Risaldar Ram Singh Dyal . His brother Rattan Singh Dyal was also in the army , and was awarded the Indian Distinguished Service Medal . Military career . Ranjit Singh completed his graduation in 1942 , and was admitted to the Indian Military Academy in 1946 . He was later commissioned in the Punjab Regiment ( Para ) of the Indian Army , and was assigned to the to 1st Battalion , which participated in the first Indo - Pak War during 1948 as a part of the 50 Independent Parachute Brigade . Between 1959 and 1962 , he was deployed in the North - East Frontier Agency ( NEFA ) sector . After further education from the Defence Services Staff College , he was posted as a Brigade Major to the 50 Independent Para Brigade . Subsequently he became second - in - command of the 1st Para battalion in the Uri sector . He later commanded the 1 Para during 1965 - 1968 in Jammu & Kashmir , and also as part of the 50 Independent Para Brigade at Agra . During the Indo - Pakistani War of 1965 , Ranjit Singh ( then a Major ) led the 1st Para team to capture the strategic Haji Pir pass ( which was later handed over to Pakistan after the Tashkent Agreement ) . According to the original plan prepared by Harbaksh Singh , the then General - Officer - Commanding - in - Chief of the Western Army Command , the Army was to capture Rustan and Badori ( or Bedori ) on the way to the Haji Pir pass . Ranjit Singh ' s unit was tasked with capturing Sank , Sar and Ledwali Gali to stop the enemy infiltration . However , the attack on Sank on the night of 25 / 26 August was unsuccessful , resulting in 18 casualties . Ranit Singh ' s paratroopers captured Sank on the night of 26 / 27 August , and Point 1033 the next day . Meanwhile , four attacks on Rustan and Badori by other battalions had proved unsuccessful . Ranjit Singh then volunteered to capture the Haji Pir pass , and his battalion took over the operation on 27 August . The unit moved along the Hyderabad nullah with only damp shakarpara s and biscuits as field ration . Ranjit Singh ' s paratroopers were fired upon by the Pakistani Army , but were saved by an unexpected shower . They subsequently captured some Pakistani soldiers from a house during the trek , took over their weapons and used them as load carriers for rest of the journey to the pass . The unit launched the final assault on the pass on 28 August , walking up 4 , 000 feet on foot . The attack was successful , as the Pakistan troops retreated from the pass . Ranjit Singh Dyal was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra for this operation . In 1984 , Ranjit Singh Dyal was appointed the security advisor to the Governor of Punjab for the Operation Blue Star , and effectively had the overall charge of leading the assault . At that time , he was chief of staff of the Western Army Command . Along with Kuldip Singh Brar and Krishnaswamy Sundarji , he drew up the plans to evict the Khalistani militants from the Golden Temple in Amritsar . In 2005 , the Chandigarh police arrested two Babbar Khalsa militants recruited by Jagtar Singh Hawara to kill Ranjit Singh in retaliation for the Operation Blue Star . Ranjit Singh later became the General - Officer - Commanding - in - Chief ( GOC - in - C ) of the Southern Command . He also served as the first head of the Chandigarh regional chapter of the Punjab Regiment Officers Association ( PROA ) in 2008 . Administrative career . Ranjit Singh served as the Lieutenant Governor of Indian Union Territories of Puducherry and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands . Last days . In his last years , General Singh was diagnosed with prostate cancer . He died on 29 January 2012 in the Command Hospital at Panchkula , where he had been admitted for terminal care .