New Delhi: In a major development, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has started a massive combat drill in the North Eastern region along the China border as a report compiled by a senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer has said that China is now able to base its troops increasingly closer to the border. The five-day-long drill, which started on Monday, comes after a skirmish between Indian and Chinese troops that took place in Arunachal Pradesh's Tawang sector on December 9. India’s frontline fighter jets, including the Rafale and Su-30MKI aircraft, and other assets deployed in the region are engaged in the exercise named 'Poorvi Aakash.’
In a statement, the Eastern Air Command said, “Eastern Air Command has commenced its annual Command level exercise exercise Poorvi Akash today. Conducted after a gap of two years owing to the Covid pandemic, the exercise will involve activation of the Command’s assets for the routine practice of aerial drills, including joint exercises.” On December 9, Indian and Chinese troops clashed at Yangtze, close to Tawang resulting in the injury on both sides.
Meanwhile, a senior IPS officer Mohd Yusuf Qureshi posted in Madhya Pradesh said in a research paper that the LAC has not been jointly delineated or demarcated by India and China. “There is no consensus of where it lies. In some parts of this mountainous geography each side’s perception of the LAC is different from others, hence, there are pockets where these conceptions overlap,” said Qureshi in his paper submitted at the recently held security meeting in Delhi.
The meeting was attended by both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. The research paper titled “Security Issues Pertaining To Unfenced Land Border” in possession of ETV Bharat observed that it is exactly these pockets in which close proximity situations occur where troops come face-to-face with each other because each side believes that it is merely patrolling up to the LAC and that the other side has transgressed it.
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There have been incidents over the years where patrols consisting of large numbers of troops from each side came into physical contact with the other. “Yangtse is one such pocket where Indian and Chinese perceptions of the LAC differ. What happened in Yangtse in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh on December 9 was a near replay of the Galwan clashes between Indian and Chinese troops in June 2020" Qureshi said in the document.
"In all 300 to 400 Chinese soldiers tried to unilaterally change the status quo of the LAC in this Arunachal sector. However, the Chinese were, the Government of India says, firmly resisted by the Indian troops in the area. Resulting physical scuffles led to injuries on both sides but no fatalities,” he added.
He said that China has improved the infrastructure on its side to such an extent that the PLA is able to move its troops to the very limits of its claimed territory at quick speeds. China is able to base its troops increasingly closer to the border, most importantly, because the PLA has been instructed by its leadership to protect every inch of Chinese territory in a proactive manner, Qureshi said.
Noting infrastructural development on part of India as well, the IPS officer said the terrain on the Indian side contained one of the highest mountains, which made road building as well as transporting men and material extremely difficult. “All this is much easier on the Chinese side, which has the Tibetan plateau where both infrastructure development as well as transportation is far less difficult,” he said.
Qureshi further stated that the process of disengagement, which has made tortuous progress over the past two years has resulted in the evolution of buffer zones that are not being patrolled by either side. "Take the example of the north bank of Pangong Tso. The agreement here is that Indian troops will be based at Dhan Singh Thapa Post at Finger 3 while Chinese troops will remain at their base camp east of Finger 8", he stated.
“The area in between is currently not being patrolled by either side at least until the two sides agree to a methodology for such patrols. As a result, close confrontations between troops of the two sides have ended on the north bank of the lake,” Qureshi added. He further said that India needs to keep its military preparedness all along the LAC at high levels while simultaneously closely assessing Chinese moves, actions and intentions on the ground.
