Lt Gen Harwant Singh (retd)

Former Deputy Chief of Army Staff

China’s moves in eastern Ladakh point to a definite purpose and are part of its penchant for long-term planning, more so for this vital region. The road linking Tibet with Xinjiang runs through Aksai Chin for 167 km and the road recently built by India, connecting Leh with Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO), can facilitate a quick build-up of forces in this part of Ladakh and consequently, gives India the capability to take back Aksai Chin. Such an action by India can terminate China’s link with Xinjiang. China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) are initially linked to this road to Xinjiang. CPEC later passes through PoK as well. Such an apprehension by China was perhaps heightened by the Indian Home Minister stating in Parliament that India will take back Aksai Chin and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK).

It would be reasonable to assume that China’s moves in the Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Hot Spring and Depsang plain, and more recently, south of Pangong Tso are consequent to this apprehension that India may at some future date make an attempt to capture Aksai Chin with all its drastic consequences for China. These moves by China in the Galwan sector etc give it the ability to intercept the Leh-DBO road and stall such an action by India. Therefore, the ongoing stand-off in the region may continue indefinitely.

Considering China’s possible hope, that at some future date, the state of J&K may fall into the lap of Pakistan, it will then be possible to run CPEC through it and that would substantially reduce the distance for the economic corridor between the two countries. Else, China, at some point, may attempt to take the Karakoram Pass, and run both the BRI and CPEC across it and beyond through the Shaksgam Valley; essentially to shorten the distance for BRI and CPEC, but more so for the latter.

Here onwards, what is likely to happen in Ladakh is going to be somewhat similar to what happened at Doklam, where China has constructed a road up to almost where they had come. China has also put up permanent structures and continues to occupy this Bhutanese territory. China is currently putting added pressure on Bhutan to occupy more of its territory.

In Ladakh, at best, China may follow the policy of two steps forwards and one step back. Equally, we may not have adequately deciphered China’s long-term plans for the Ladakh region.

While we need not dwell on a military solution to this intrusion into Indian territory, the possibility of China pulling back to pre-May 2020 positions through diplomatic efforts appear bleak. Efforts to delineate and mark the India-Tibet border through diplomatic parleys has made little headway all these years. India needs to consider where we are at a tactical advantage, to occupy areas across the LAC to later act as quid pro quo to make China vacate its ingresses in Ladakh.

In all probability, it is going to be a long haul, which seems to suit China.

The current state of deployment and maintaining these troops in this far-off region, over a long period, imposes a heavy financial burden on India, though it gives India the confidence that its supposedly strong leadership and the present state of its military is enough to stare China down and as such there is no immediate need to upgrade it. This is precisely what China would want India to continue believing.

With Ladakh being designated as union territory and a Chinese move into this area, there is a need to relook at the infrastructure required for better connectivity with this region. The main connectivity with Ladakh, instead of through the Kashmir valley, should now be through Himachal Pradesh. To that end, the existing road via Kullu-Manali needs to be double- laned and work on tunnels across all the three passes along this route should be fast-tracked.

The extension of the railway line from Joginder Nagar to Leh should be expedited and the railway line from Shimla be extended to Keylong to join the one from Joginder Nagar. The existing Kalka-Shimla road should be extended from Lasar to Demchok and then on to Upshi.

With this threat developing from China in the Ladakh region, and reports of a new set of roads being built opposite Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and recent news of Chinese soldiers’ cellphone signals emanating from within a few kilometres of the Indian territory in Himachal Pradesh, there is perhaps a compelling requirement to rework the military infrastructure, particularly along the border with Tibet. When we had built the road to Lipulekh Pass, we should have occupied this pass. Equally, there is a need to reorganise the overall defence along this border, with capability for limited offensive at a number of places.

Considering the extent of border with Tibet and the type of terrain along it and the fact that it is not marked on the ground and does not have similar markings on the maps of both countries, it is possible that China’s ingress into Indian territory might have taken place at some other places as well. Therefore, there is the need to thoroughly check the ground situation along this long border. There is also the requirement to deploy additional surveillance resources and improve manning of this border.

For the present, China seems to be quite satisfied in having achieved its aim in letting India believe that its supposedly strong leadership and existing military capabilities are enough to deter China from taking any offensive against India and as such there is little requirement to upgrade these. This is what eminently suits China, as part of its long-term plans. At the other end, it carries the risk of India falling into this trap and continuing to neglect the imperatives of upgrading military capabilities.

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, September 7

Havildar Subhash Chand laid down his life while fighting terrorists in Uri sector of Jammu and Kashmir on December 5, 2014. However, six years after the martyrdom, his family is still waiting for a pucca road to their Bharana Da Bassa village in Bhatiyat area of Chamba district as promised by politicians.

Ashwani Kumar, son of Havildar Subhash Chand, while talking to The Tribune, said that just 1.5-km road has to be constructed to connect their village to Luhni which has pucca road connectivity. “Local politicians and officials, who visited our village after the martyrdom of my father, promised to construct a pucca road to their village. However, it has been six year but the work on construction of road was yet to be started,” he said.

“We are not demanding anything for our family. We are just saying that their village should be connected with a road. The residents face difficulties due to lack of road connectivity to their village. It is difficult to carry people suffering from medical emergencies in their village to the nearest hospital. In monsoons when the kucha road becomes muddy it was difficult to ply even two wheelers on it,” Ashwani said.

He further said that the students have to walk long distances to reach school. “I just want that the martyrdom of my father should be honoured by the government by constructing 1.5-km road to connect their village,” Ashwani said.

Chamba district of Himachal was selected under Vision 22 program of the union government as a backward district. It was one of the 115 districts selected across the country that were be developed at a fast pace under the Union government scheme named “Aspirational District Yojana”.

Chamba had been selected under the scheme as it was lagging behind on various development indices as compared to other districts of the state.

As per the statistical report of the state government, Chamba district has the lowest literacy in the state. Out of the total 3,257-km road length in the district more than 50 per cent was single lane and 251 km can only be trekked by jeeps. The industrial facility in the district was among the lowest in the state. Only tribal districts of Lahaul and Spiti and Kinnaur lagged behind Chamba in industrialization. However, till date the district was yet to see any development under the Central scheme.

Jammu, September 7

Pakistan used firing and shelling on Monday to violate ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district.

Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Devender Anand said at about 5 pm on Monday, Pakistan initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation by firing with small arms and shelling with mortars along the LoC in Sunderbani sector of Rajouri district.

“Indian army retaliated befittingly,” the spokesman said.

Pakistan has violated ceasefire along the LoC with impunity this year. As many as 24 civilians have been killed while over 100 have been injured in more than 2,730 ceasefire violations by Pakistan so far this year. IANS

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 8

China in the wee hours of Tuesday accused Indian troops of having fired bullet shots across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in an area south of the Pangong Tso, a 135 km glacial-melt lake.

Also read: 

China provokes: Arunachal ‘South Tibet’

A statement by Colonel Zhang Shuili of China’s People’s Liberation Army’s Western Theater Command, was reported by Global Times, a Chinese state owned news outlet at almost 2:30 am China time on Tuesday. That would be midnight in India. The PLA claimed the incident occurred on September 7, Monday.

The Indian side has so far not responded to this claim. Indications are that a response was expected soon.

Since 1967, no bullets have been fired across the LAC, when an incident occurred at Nathu La and both sides were involved in a bloody skirmish. In another incident in 1974, a few Assam Rifles personnel had lost their lives when they inadvertently crossed over the undefined boundary in Arunachal Pradesh.

Sources on the Indian side said it was the PLA on September 7 that was trying to capture a peak held by India.

The PLA had earlier said that the “Indian Army blatantly fired threats to the patrol personnel of the Chinese border guards who had made representations, and the Chinese border guards were forced to take countermeasures to stabilize the situation on the ground (sic).”

The Chinese spokesperson alleged the Indian Army had illegally crossed the LAC and India’s actions seriously violated the relevant agreements between China and India.

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 7

After having made dogs an integral part of the force, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) is now setting up a retirement home for its K-9 veterans, who are no longer fit for active duty, where they can be cared for.

“A case for establishing a retirement home for our dogs is under process at force headquarters and it is expected to come up at the ITBP’s National Dog Training Centre at Bhanu this year,” an ITBP officer said.

At present, dogs that are no longer to be used for operational or security duties due to old age or injury are sent to an ITBP unit where veterinary care is available and where they can pass the rest of their life peacefully.

The ITBP uses dogs for border patrolling as well as in internal security duties. Besides tracking humans, they are also trained to storm into rooms and vehicles, neutralise and restrain intruders and armed persons, detect explosives and narcotics and assist in search and rescue operations.

More recently, the ITBP raised a new unit of assault dogs that have been trained to work in a pack of four to pin down an adversary. This means that all four dogs in the pack will go after a single adversary who is considered to be a threat.

The ITBP, which claims this to be the first unit of its kind in the world, plans to train a total of 30 such dogs of the Belgian Malinois and the German Shepherd breeds and deploy them in highly sensitive areas.

“Such animals are placed on a rehabilitation register and given a sheltered appointment where they can also be used for training dog handlers and veterinary staff,” said the officer.

“Our K-9s are highly valuable assets who have rendered Yeoman’s service, especially during anti-naxal and anti-terrorist operations. It becomes the responsibility of the force to care for them in the twilight of their life,” he added.

According to the ITBP sources, there are at present 30 “retired” dogs on its rolls living in various units, where they are groomed and exercised regularly and provided vet care. These dogs are entitled to 70 per cent of the ration scale of active duty K-9s.

Tribune News Service

Jammu, September 4

Against the backdrop of detection of a trans-border tunnel originating from Pakistan in the Samba sector, Director General (DG) of the Border Security Force (BSF) Rakesh Asthana on Friday praised BSF troops for their alertness, saying “it has foiled the cruel motives of counterpart”.

Asthana, who arrived at the Frontier Headquarters, Jammu, on his three-day-long visit of the international border, toured critical areas along the border and reviewed overall deployment of the BSF and its domination plan.

Official sources said the DG had all praise for the alertness of the troops deployed along the international border as they had also shot down an arms-laden Pakistan drone at Rathua village in the Hiranagar sector on June 20.

On August 28, the BSF had detected a 25-ft deep and 4-ft wide tunnel on the Indian side near border fencing in the Galar area of the Samba sector. Pakistan-made sand bags with marking of Karachi factories were also found at the mouth of the tunnel to hide it. The place of opening of the tunnel was around 170 metres from the IB on the Indian side in the field of a farmer.

According to official spokesperson, the DG visited areas of Pargwal and Akhnoor to take stock of situation on the first day of his visit.

He was accompanied by Addl DG (WC) SS Panwar, Inspector General (IG), BSF, Jammu Frontier, NS Jamwal and other officers. Jamwal briefed the DG about complexities of management of the Jammu border under the prevailing security scenario. Asthana, visited the critical areas of Chicken Neck stretch of the Akhnoor sector and held discussion with sector/unit commanders on the ground and reviewed security situation.

He also interacted with jawans and was full of praise for them for their dedication towards safeguarding the international borders.

Tribune News Service
Srinagar, September 4

Three unidentified militants were killed while three security personnel, including an Army Major, were injured in an encounter in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district today, the police said.

The gunfight erupted after the joint forces launched a cordon and search operation at Yedipora Pattan in the morning following inputs about militants’ presence.

“The hideout was identified and the militants asked to surrender. They, however, took hostage 12 members of two families, including some children. The priority was to get hostages freed,” a police spokesman said. “One Army Major and two policemen were injured while rescuing hostages,” he said. In the ensuing gunfight, which continued for several hours, three militants were killed.