Chandimandir Cantonment is a military cantonment of the Indian Army located in Panchkula district at the foot of the Sivalik Hills adjoining Panchkula city in Haryana. It is the headquarters of the Western Command of the Indian Army. Background Etymology Chandimandir Cantonment as well as the Chandigarh city are named after the Chandi Mandir. The Chandi Mandir is located within the Chandimandir Cantonment and it is managed by the Shri Mata Mansa Devi Shrine Board. History Establishment of cantonment The military camp was built in the late 1960s as the Western Army Command Headquarters of the Indian Army. A new branch of the army raised during the 1971 Indo-Pak war (II Corps) was housed there until the mid-1980s. Until then the Western Army Command had been in Shimla, although not many Command units could be housed there due to a shortage of space; in the mid-1980s two corps (Kharga) moved to Ambala, and Western Command was relocated from Simla to Chandimandir. It is among the few modern military stations built in independent India whose history does not date back to the British Indian Army. Operation Blue Star In 1984, Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India, deployed the army to flush separatist Sikh militants along with Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his associates out of the Golden Temple at Amritsar complex. Code-named Operation Blue Star, the project was planned by Major General Kuldip Singh Brar, along with Lt. General Krishnaswamy Sundarji (then chief of western army command) and Lt. General Ranjit Singh Dyal (then command chief of staff). Immediately before the Operation, Brar was commanding the 9 Infantry Division out of Meerut. His three brigades were based in Meerut, Delhi and Jalandhar, two of them composed of Sikhs. On 31 May 1984, the day before Brar and his wife were to fly to Manila for a vacation, he received a call asking him to come to Chandimandir Cantonment. When Brar arrived, he was told to fly immediately to Amritsar, where a division had been relocated to the Indo-Pakistan border in case Pakistan moved in to support the pro-Khalistan militants. The cantonment Facilities Sectors A and B of Chandimandir are designated as its officers' families quarters. Sectors C, D, E, and F are assigned to families of junior commissioned officers and other ranks. Many military families stay in Panchkula in rented houses. Pine Marg is a residential area for senior officers. Manekshaw