India has almost accepted the Chinese right on more than 60 square kilometres of Indian-patrolled territory in the last month – equally divided between the northern bank of the Pangong Lake and the Galwan River sectors (newly captured).
Pls read how an Indian ex-security official writes about the developments. (multiple blog posts.)
One feature that stands out is the trademark baniya-cowardice. A baniya will crush the weak ruthlessly with its full power, and it will grovel in front of the mighty. We'll
hear the Chinese version of 'Tea is fantastic' from Indians very soon.
ajaishukla.blogspot.com
Monday, 1 June 2020
Echoes of Kargil: China intrusion can lead to India losing DBO link
PLA troops in the Galwan Valley now overlook the strategic road to Daulat Beg Oldi, giving them the capability to cut it off
In what the army is recognizing as a repeat of Pakistan’s 1999 Kargil intrusions, but this time by China in eastern Ladakh, troops of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) continue consolidating their defences in the Galwan River and Pangong Lake areas, up to three kilometres (km) inside territory that the Indian Army has patrolled and claimed for decades.
Just as the Kargil intrusions allowed Pakistani troops to dominate the Srinagar-Zojila-Kargil-Leh highway and threatened to cut off Ladakh from the north; the Chinese intrusion into the Galwan River valley allows PLA troops to overlook the strategic Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldi (DSDBO) highway and cut off the army’s lone year-round connection with its isolated “Sub-Sector North” (SSN), at the base of the Karakoram Pass.
PLA soldiers that have established themselves at the mouth of the Galwan River valley at its confluence with the Shyok River are just one-and-a-half kilometres from the DSDBO road. They overlook the road, which winds along the Shyok River valley, and can bring down artillery and missile fire to prevent its use.
The PLA apparently intends to dominate this road permanently. Even as top Chinese officials declare the issue can be resolved through dialogue, PLA intruders are building bunkers while PLA engineers are connecting their forward troops with China’s formidable road infrastructure on the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Government sources conservatively estimate that the PLA has captured more than 60 square kilometres of Indian-patrolled territory in the last month – equally divided between the northern bank of the Pangong Lake and the Galwan River sectors.
Chinese troops now block access to several Indian “Patrolling Points” (PPs) along the LAC, which Indian army patrols have regularly visited for decades to assert their claim over the area. Amongst them are PP-14, 16, 18 and 19.
At this time of the year, when the risk of Chinese intrusions is highest, it has been customary for the army’s Udhampur-based Northern Command to move reserve formations into the area, ostensibly for “training exercises”. But this year, reserve troops were retained in their peacetime locations because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Consequently, there has been a dire shortage of reserve troops to react to the PLA’s multiple intrusions. By the time the northern army was able to move reserves into the area, the PLA had already consolidated its hold over its newly acquired positions.
Army headquarters in New Delhi is coming round to the view that top generals in Ladakh have been caught napping. There is growing talk about replacing the corps commander in Leh, and even the northern army commander in Udhampur.
After the Kargil intrusions of 1999, which an enquiry blamed on “intelligence failure”, not a single general lost his job or was replaced. The army pinned the entire blame on a single brigadier in Kargil.
A retired defence intelligence chief, speaking anonymously, blames the current situation on an intelligence, as well as an operational failure. “The Chinese have always been ultra-sensitive to India expanding its presence in northern Ladakh. That is because this adjoins the Aksai Chin, through which China has constructed its strategic Western Highway that connects Tibet with Xinjiang. When we built the 255-kilometre DBDSO Road through this area, why did the army not deploy troops on the eastern side of the Shyok, especially in the Galwan Valley, to protect the eastern approaches from the Chinese side?” he says.
The officer cites the Chinese intrusion in 2013 into Depsang, in the Daulat Beg Oldi sector, soon after India activated a landing ground there and beefed up troop numbers.
Within the army, there is growing concern that New Delhi will allow the Chinese to retain the territory they have occupied in the last month. In public statements last week, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has already conceded that the alignment of the LAC, and therefore the ownership of territory, is unclear in this area.
Rajnath Singh speaks to US counterpart as Chinese troops consolidate intrusions into Ladakh
By Ajai Shukla
Business Standard, 30th May 20
After New Delhi on Friday rejected US President Donald Trump’s claim that he had discussed the Chinese intrusion across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government stated that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had spoken with his American counterpart, Defence Secretary Mark Esper.
Besides discussing the Covid-19 pandemic, “They reviewed progress on various bilateral defence cooperation arrangements and expressed their commitment to further promote our defence partnership,” stated a defence ministry release.
Meanwhile, thousands of Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops, which had intruded into the Pangong Lake sector and the Galwan River Valley, continued consolidating their positions, digging defences needed to repel Indian attacks.
Two days after the Chinese foreign minister stated on Wednesday that the “Border areas situation is overall stable and controllable,” government sources reported and satellite photos confirmed that the PLA was constructing concrete bunkers at four places in Galwan, especially Gogra Top; and on India’s side of the LAC on the North bank of the Pangong Tso.
It is also being reported that the Chinese are busy extending roads across the LAC to Gogra in the Galwan valley, a distance of about 2.5 kilometres.
In addition, PLA troops have completed a road on the Pangong Tso north bank from Finger 5 to Finger 8, a distance of about 3 kilometres.
All this has been done over the last two weeks, in the same manner as the PLA took just two weeks in October 1962 to extend a road over the LAC to Tawang, after capturing that border town.
Even more worrisome, the PLA has moved armoured vehicles and artillery guns to the LAC, close to their intrusion points, enabling fire support to be provided to their troops that had crossed the LAC.
There are now about 18 guns in support of the Chinese troops at Pangong Tso, and about 12 guns supporting PLA troops in the Galwan valley.
To contain the threat from the Galwan valley to the tactically important Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldi (DSDBO) road, Indian infantry troops have taken up positions to block further ingress by the PLA.
However, there is no action to evict the intruders, nor any deployment of Indian tanks to guard against just such an eventuality.
Nor is there any deployment of troops from the mountain strike corps that the army created at a cost of some Rs 70,000 crore, purely to act as a deterrent against Chinese intrusions.
Instead, New Delhi stated: “India is committed to the objective of maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the border areas with China and our armed forces scrupulously follow the consensus reached by our leaders and the guidance provided. At the same time, we remain firm in our resolve to ensuring India’s sovereignty and national security.”
Posted by Broadsword at 08:10 6 comments:
Tuesday, 26 May 2020
After changing Galwan claim line thrice, PLA now claims entire valley
The Darbuk valley, from where the road to Daulet Beg Oldi (DBO) takes off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC)
By Ajai Shukla
Business Standard, 26th May 20
In June 2017, Indian soldiers in Sikkim took Chinese border guards completely by surprise when they crossed into Bhutan and physically blocked Chinese road construction crew from extending a track into disputed territory.
Eventually, hundreds of Indian soldiers stood face-to-face with as many Chinese for over two months before New Delhi and Beijing negotiated a mutual withdrawal that saved face for the Chinese.
Today, it is the Indians who have been taken by surprise. In the third week of April, Indian border forces in Ladakh observed regular Chinese forces on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) – the de factor border – being supplemented with additional troops, heavy trucks and equipment. The Indian side mistakenly assessed this was just routine summer training.
There was shock on May 5, when some 5,000 Chinese troops crossed into the Galwan River valley, followed by another incursion in similar numbers into the Pangong Lake sector on May 12. Simultaneously, there were smaller incursions near Demchok, in Southern Ladakh and in Naku La in North Sikkim.
Currently, government sources assess there are close to 10,000 soldiers of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on Indian territory. Dialogue is frozen, with the Chinese rebuffing Indian calls for flag meetings to resolve the situation.
The most worrying situation is in the Galwan valley, where the PLA has crossed China’s own claim line (which Beijing had stated was the border with India), and breached 3-4 kilometres into Indian territory. PLA troops are digging defences to equip themselves to face any Indian attack.
A China defence website with close links to the PLA has claimed that the entire Galwan River valley is a part of China.
Stating that: “The Indian side crossed the line in the Galwan valley... and unilaterally change the status of the border, the website claimed: “ The Galwan valley is a Chinese territory, and the local control situation is very clear.”
This follows a previous pattern. China had systematically eroded Galwan’s status starting 1956, followed by an official claim in 1960 and then by military action during the 1962 war.
The border at Galwan River was first enunciated by China in a map published in 1956 and endorsed by Zhou Enlai in 1959. In that, China claimed a boundary that started east of the Karakoram Pass and ran southeastwards, cutting through the Galwan River valley to Khurnak Fort. From there it ran south, through the centre of the Pangong Lake, passing through the eastern extremity of the Spanggur Lake and then, further south to Demchok.
In 1960, when Zhou Enlai led an official delegation for talks to New Delhi, China advanced a new border that claimed an additional 5,180 square kilometres of Indian territory in Ladakh. Running generally west of the 1956 claim line, it ran close to the eastern bank of the Shyok River, cutting the Galwan River close to its confluence with the Shyok – west of the earlier claim.
Further south, it claimed more of the Pangong Lake, all of the Spanggur Lake and then ran approximately along the 1956 claim line to Demchok.
During the 1962 war, Chinese troops captured the Galwan valley post, killing some 36 Indian soldiers. After the war, China advanced its claim line even further west, claiming an additional 2,000 square kilometres of Ladakh.
Now, even this claim line has been violated and China is attempting to push the frontier at Galwan further west.
Four days after the Galwan intrusion, China’s second intrusion began on May 9 in Naku La, in northern Sikkim, also across a settled Sikkim-Tibet border. Some 200 Chinese soldiers temporarily occupied Indian territory, but have now withdrawn to the Chinese side and have pitched up tents.
In the third intrusion, which took place near the Pangong Lake on May 12/13th, thousands of Chinese soldiers occupied disputed territory between Finger 8 and Finger 4. By May 18, the Chinese had taken over the so-called Finger Heights.
While this intrusion is not into territory that Beijing has previously recognized as Indian, there is now – for the first time – a Chinese flag flying on the hill features overlooking the lake. India’s so-called Dhan Singh Post, which was built after the 1962 war, is the last Indian post standing in that sector.
The Indian army has been slow to react. Indian troops have deployed in the vicinity of the PLA incursions, but there are no attempts to outflank Chinese positions. In addition one-to-two Indian brigades have begun moving into the area over the last 2-3 days.
Posted by Broadsword at 08:08 35 comments:
Saturday, 23 May 2020
A new and worrying chapter: Ladakh intrusion by Chinese troops gathers momentum
By Ajai Shukla
Business Standard, 23rd May 20
For the first time since the Kargil intrusions of 1999, Indian territory is in the hands of foreign soldiers. Starting in the third week of April, more than 5,000 Chinese soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have intruded into five points in Ladakh – four along the Galwan River, and one near the Pangong Lake.
While patrol intrusions from both sides are routine in areas where the Line of Actual Control (LAC) – the de facto border between India and China – is disputed, the LAC in the Galwan Valley corresponds to China’s official claim line.
That means that, in sending thousands of PLA troops three-to-four kilometres into the Galwan Valley, China has violated its own claim line and occupied territory that Beijing itself has traditionally acknowledged to be Indian.
This is not shaping up like a routing patrol confrontation, or even a temporary occupation of disputed territory of the kind that took place in Depsang in 2013, or in Chumar in 2014. This time the PLA soldiers are digging defences, preparing bunkers, moving in heavy vehicles and have reportedly even moved artillery guns to the rear (albeit in their own territory) to support the intruders, say the sources.
The Chinese have pitched close to a hundred tents at four points on the Galwan River between Patrolling Point 14 (PP 14) and another location called Gogra.
Indian troops in the area were taken by surprise when a large Chinese force crossed the LAC into the Galwan area in late April. Since then, Indian forces have not challenged or confronted the PLA.
Sources say the PLA is expanding its presence. There are fresh reports that the PLA has already initiated another infiltration into another sector in Southern Ladakh.
The Pangong Lake intrusion has been especially bloody for the Indian soldiers there. Sources say 72 Indian soldiers were injured in the confrontation and some of them needed to be flown to hospitals in Leh, Chandi Mandir and Delhi.
The PLA intrusions into Ladakh do not appear to be a localized operation, since they are spread across the area of responsibility of different PLA brigades and division. That suggests centralized coordination from at least the PLA’s theatre command.
Contacted for confirmation, senior officers in the army’s public information directorate declined to comment. Sources say the prime minister’s office (PMO) and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval are overseeing the Indian response.
At the local military level, which falls under the ambit of the Leh Corps Commander, there is little contact with the Chinese. It is learnt that the PLA has stopped responding to Indian requests for flag meetings under the mutual protocol termed the “Border Management Posture” (BMP). “It is a stand-off in which there is presently no communication,” says a senior military officer.
The unusual level of Chinese aggression is illustrated by an incident at the end of April when two Chinese helicopter chased off an Indian helicopter in which the Leh Corps Commander was surveying Indian positions near the Pangong Lake.
The army admits that there was an incident involving helicopters from both sides, but states it was a “coincidence” that the Chinese helicopters were there. The Indian Air Force (IAF) chief, Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria admitted in an interview this week that there was Chinese helicopter activity in the area, but claimed that the IAF was taking “necessary action”.
There is little clarity within government about why the Chinese have triggered this intrusion, along with another simultaneously in Sikkim. Some officials speculate that Beijing is punishing New Delhi for publishing a revised map of the former state of Jammu & Kashmir in November, which showed Aksai Chin – which both countries claim, but China occupies – as a part of India.
Another viewpoint holds that the traditionally peaceful Galwan River has now become a hotspot because it is where the LAC is closest to the new road India has built along the Shyok River to Daulet Beg Oldi (DBO) -- the most remote and vulnerable area along the LAC in Ladakh.
Along the 800 kilometre LAC in Ladakh, there have traditionally been just five trouble spots, where the two sides dispute the LAC. These are Chumar, Demchok, Pangong and two places near DBO. The PLA’s ingress into the Galwan River valley opens up a new and worrying chapter.
Labels: China, defence planning, Indian Air Force, Indian Army, Indian Navy, Inside Tales, Internal security, Morale, region, strategy
Pls read how an Indian ex-security official writes about the developments. (multiple blog posts.)
One feature that stands out is the trademark baniya-cowardice. A baniya will crush the weak ruthlessly with its full power, and it will grovel in front of the mighty. We'll
hear the Chinese version of 'Tea is fantastic' from Indians very soon.
Broadsword by Ajai Shukla - Strategy. Economics. Defence.
YOUR DESCRIPTION HERE
Monday, 1 June 2020
Echoes of Kargil: China intrusion can lead to India losing DBO link
PLA troops in the Galwan Valley now overlook the strategic road to Daulat Beg Oldi, giving them the capability to cut it off
In what the army is recognizing as a repeat of Pakistan’s 1999 Kargil intrusions, but this time by China in eastern Ladakh, troops of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) continue consolidating their defences in the Galwan River and Pangong Lake areas, up to three kilometres (km) inside territory that the Indian Army has patrolled and claimed for decades.
Just as the Kargil intrusions allowed Pakistani troops to dominate the Srinagar-Zojila-Kargil-Leh highway and threatened to cut off Ladakh from the north; the Chinese intrusion into the Galwan River valley allows PLA troops to overlook the strategic Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldi (DSDBO) highway and cut off the army’s lone year-round connection with its isolated “Sub-Sector North” (SSN), at the base of the Karakoram Pass.
PLA soldiers that have established themselves at the mouth of the Galwan River valley at its confluence with the Shyok River are just one-and-a-half kilometres from the DSDBO road. They overlook the road, which winds along the Shyok River valley, and can bring down artillery and missile fire to prevent its use.
The PLA apparently intends to dominate this road permanently. Even as top Chinese officials declare the issue can be resolved through dialogue, PLA intruders are building bunkers while PLA engineers are connecting their forward troops with China’s formidable road infrastructure on the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Government sources conservatively estimate that the PLA has captured more than 60 square kilometres of Indian-patrolled territory in the last month – equally divided between the northern bank of the Pangong Lake and the Galwan River sectors.
Chinese troops now block access to several Indian “Patrolling Points” (PPs) along the LAC, which Indian army patrols have regularly visited for decades to assert their claim over the area. Amongst them are PP-14, 16, 18 and 19.
At this time of the year, when the risk of Chinese intrusions is highest, it has been customary for the army’s Udhampur-based Northern Command to move reserve formations into the area, ostensibly for “training exercises”. But this year, reserve troops were retained in their peacetime locations because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Consequently, there has been a dire shortage of reserve troops to react to the PLA’s multiple intrusions. By the time the northern army was able to move reserves into the area, the PLA had already consolidated its hold over its newly acquired positions.
Army headquarters in New Delhi is coming round to the view that top generals in Ladakh have been caught napping. There is growing talk about replacing the corps commander in Leh, and even the northern army commander in Udhampur.
After the Kargil intrusions of 1999, which an enquiry blamed on “intelligence failure”, not a single general lost his job or was replaced. The army pinned the entire blame on a single brigadier in Kargil.
A retired defence intelligence chief, speaking anonymously, blames the current situation on an intelligence, as well as an operational failure. “The Chinese have always been ultra-sensitive to India expanding its presence in northern Ladakh. That is because this adjoins the Aksai Chin, through which China has constructed its strategic Western Highway that connects Tibet with Xinjiang. When we built the 255-kilometre DBDSO Road through this area, why did the army not deploy troops on the eastern side of the Shyok, especially in the Galwan Valley, to protect the eastern approaches from the Chinese side?” he says.
The officer cites the Chinese intrusion in 2013 into Depsang, in the Daulat Beg Oldi sector, soon after India activated a landing ground there and beefed up troop numbers.
Within the army, there is growing concern that New Delhi will allow the Chinese to retain the territory they have occupied in the last month. In public statements last week, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has already conceded that the alignment of the LAC, and therefore the ownership of territory, is unclear in this area.
Rajnath Singh speaks to US counterpart as Chinese troops consolidate intrusions into Ladakh
By Ajai Shukla
Business Standard, 30th May 20
After New Delhi on Friday rejected US President Donald Trump’s claim that he had discussed the Chinese intrusion across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government stated that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had spoken with his American counterpart, Defence Secretary Mark Esper.
Besides discussing the Covid-19 pandemic, “They reviewed progress on various bilateral defence cooperation arrangements and expressed their commitment to further promote our defence partnership,” stated a defence ministry release.
Meanwhile, thousands of Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops, which had intruded into the Pangong Lake sector and the Galwan River Valley, continued consolidating their positions, digging defences needed to repel Indian attacks.
Two days after the Chinese foreign minister stated on Wednesday that the “Border areas situation is overall stable and controllable,” government sources reported and satellite photos confirmed that the PLA was constructing concrete bunkers at four places in Galwan, especially Gogra Top; and on India’s side of the LAC on the North bank of the Pangong Tso.
It is also being reported that the Chinese are busy extending roads across the LAC to Gogra in the Galwan valley, a distance of about 2.5 kilometres.
In addition, PLA troops have completed a road on the Pangong Tso north bank from Finger 5 to Finger 8, a distance of about 3 kilometres.
All this has been done over the last two weeks, in the same manner as the PLA took just two weeks in October 1962 to extend a road over the LAC to Tawang, after capturing that border town.
Even more worrisome, the PLA has moved armoured vehicles and artillery guns to the LAC, close to their intrusion points, enabling fire support to be provided to their troops that had crossed the LAC.
There are now about 18 guns in support of the Chinese troops at Pangong Tso, and about 12 guns supporting PLA troops in the Galwan valley.
To contain the threat from the Galwan valley to the tactically important Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldi (DSDBO) road, Indian infantry troops have taken up positions to block further ingress by the PLA.
However, there is no action to evict the intruders, nor any deployment of Indian tanks to guard against just such an eventuality.
Nor is there any deployment of troops from the mountain strike corps that the army created at a cost of some Rs 70,000 crore, purely to act as a deterrent against Chinese intrusions.
Instead, New Delhi stated: “India is committed to the objective of maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the border areas with China and our armed forces scrupulously follow the consensus reached by our leaders and the guidance provided. At the same time, we remain firm in our resolve to ensuring India’s sovereignty and national security.”
Posted by Broadsword at 08:10 6 comments:
Tuesday, 26 May 2020
After changing Galwan claim line thrice, PLA now claims entire valley
The Darbuk valley, from where the road to Daulet Beg Oldi (DBO) takes off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC)
By Ajai Shukla
Business Standard, 26th May 20
In June 2017, Indian soldiers in Sikkim took Chinese border guards completely by surprise when they crossed into Bhutan and physically blocked Chinese road construction crew from extending a track into disputed territory.
Eventually, hundreds of Indian soldiers stood face-to-face with as many Chinese for over two months before New Delhi and Beijing negotiated a mutual withdrawal that saved face for the Chinese.
Today, it is the Indians who have been taken by surprise. In the third week of April, Indian border forces in Ladakh observed regular Chinese forces on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) – the de factor border – being supplemented with additional troops, heavy trucks and equipment. The Indian side mistakenly assessed this was just routine summer training.
There was shock on May 5, when some 5,000 Chinese troops crossed into the Galwan River valley, followed by another incursion in similar numbers into the Pangong Lake sector on May 12. Simultaneously, there were smaller incursions near Demchok, in Southern Ladakh and in Naku La in North Sikkim.
Currently, government sources assess there are close to 10,000 soldiers of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on Indian territory. Dialogue is frozen, with the Chinese rebuffing Indian calls for flag meetings to resolve the situation.
The most worrying situation is in the Galwan valley, where the PLA has crossed China’s own claim line (which Beijing had stated was the border with India), and breached 3-4 kilometres into Indian territory. PLA troops are digging defences to equip themselves to face any Indian attack.
A China defence website with close links to the PLA has claimed that the entire Galwan River valley is a part of China.
Stating that: “The Indian side crossed the line in the Galwan valley... and unilaterally change the status of the border, the website claimed: “ The Galwan valley is a Chinese territory, and the local control situation is very clear.”
This follows a previous pattern. China had systematically eroded Galwan’s status starting 1956, followed by an official claim in 1960 and then by military action during the 1962 war.
The border at Galwan River was first enunciated by China in a map published in 1956 and endorsed by Zhou Enlai in 1959. In that, China claimed a boundary that started east of the Karakoram Pass and ran southeastwards, cutting through the Galwan River valley to Khurnak Fort. From there it ran south, through the centre of the Pangong Lake, passing through the eastern extremity of the Spanggur Lake and then, further south to Demchok.
In 1960, when Zhou Enlai led an official delegation for talks to New Delhi, China advanced a new border that claimed an additional 5,180 square kilometres of Indian territory in Ladakh. Running generally west of the 1956 claim line, it ran close to the eastern bank of the Shyok River, cutting the Galwan River close to its confluence with the Shyok – west of the earlier claim.
Further south, it claimed more of the Pangong Lake, all of the Spanggur Lake and then ran approximately along the 1956 claim line to Demchok.
During the 1962 war, Chinese troops captured the Galwan valley post, killing some 36 Indian soldiers. After the war, China advanced its claim line even further west, claiming an additional 2,000 square kilometres of Ladakh.
Now, even this claim line has been violated and China is attempting to push the frontier at Galwan further west.
Four days after the Galwan intrusion, China’s second intrusion began on May 9 in Naku La, in northern Sikkim, also across a settled Sikkim-Tibet border. Some 200 Chinese soldiers temporarily occupied Indian territory, but have now withdrawn to the Chinese side and have pitched up tents.
In the third intrusion, which took place near the Pangong Lake on May 12/13th, thousands of Chinese soldiers occupied disputed territory between Finger 8 and Finger 4. By May 18, the Chinese had taken over the so-called Finger Heights.
While this intrusion is not into territory that Beijing has previously recognized as Indian, there is now – for the first time – a Chinese flag flying on the hill features overlooking the lake. India’s so-called Dhan Singh Post, which was built after the 1962 war, is the last Indian post standing in that sector.
The Indian army has been slow to react. Indian troops have deployed in the vicinity of the PLA incursions, but there are no attempts to outflank Chinese positions. In addition one-to-two Indian brigades have begun moving into the area over the last 2-3 days.
Posted by Broadsword at 08:08 35 comments:
Saturday, 23 May 2020
A new and worrying chapter: Ladakh intrusion by Chinese troops gathers momentum
By Ajai Shukla
Business Standard, 23rd May 20
For the first time since the Kargil intrusions of 1999, Indian territory is in the hands of foreign soldiers. Starting in the third week of April, more than 5,000 Chinese soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have intruded into five points in Ladakh – four along the Galwan River, and one near the Pangong Lake.
While patrol intrusions from both sides are routine in areas where the Line of Actual Control (LAC) – the de facto border between India and China – is disputed, the LAC in the Galwan Valley corresponds to China’s official claim line.
That means that, in sending thousands of PLA troops three-to-four kilometres into the Galwan Valley, China has violated its own claim line and occupied territory that Beijing itself has traditionally acknowledged to be Indian.
This is not shaping up like a routing patrol confrontation, or even a temporary occupation of disputed territory of the kind that took place in Depsang in 2013, or in Chumar in 2014. This time the PLA soldiers are digging defences, preparing bunkers, moving in heavy vehicles and have reportedly even moved artillery guns to the rear (albeit in their own territory) to support the intruders, say the sources.
The Chinese have pitched close to a hundred tents at four points on the Galwan River between Patrolling Point 14 (PP 14) and another location called Gogra.
Indian troops in the area were taken by surprise when a large Chinese force crossed the LAC into the Galwan area in late April. Since then, Indian forces have not challenged or confronted the PLA.
Sources say the PLA is expanding its presence. There are fresh reports that the PLA has already initiated another infiltration into another sector in Southern Ladakh.
The Pangong Lake intrusion has been especially bloody for the Indian soldiers there. Sources say 72 Indian soldiers were injured in the confrontation and some of them needed to be flown to hospitals in Leh, Chandi Mandir and Delhi.
The PLA intrusions into Ladakh do not appear to be a localized operation, since they are spread across the area of responsibility of different PLA brigades and division. That suggests centralized coordination from at least the PLA’s theatre command.
Contacted for confirmation, senior officers in the army’s public information directorate declined to comment. Sources say the prime minister’s office (PMO) and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval are overseeing the Indian response.
At the local military level, which falls under the ambit of the Leh Corps Commander, there is little contact with the Chinese. It is learnt that the PLA has stopped responding to Indian requests for flag meetings under the mutual protocol termed the “Border Management Posture” (BMP). “It is a stand-off in which there is presently no communication,” says a senior military officer.
The unusual level of Chinese aggression is illustrated by an incident at the end of April when two Chinese helicopter chased off an Indian helicopter in which the Leh Corps Commander was surveying Indian positions near the Pangong Lake.
The army admits that there was an incident involving helicopters from both sides, but states it was a “coincidence” that the Chinese helicopters were there. The Indian Air Force (IAF) chief, Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria admitted in an interview this week that there was Chinese helicopter activity in the area, but claimed that the IAF was taking “necessary action”.
There is little clarity within government about why the Chinese have triggered this intrusion, along with another simultaneously in Sikkim. Some officials speculate that Beijing is punishing New Delhi for publishing a revised map of the former state of Jammu & Kashmir in November, which showed Aksai Chin – which both countries claim, but China occupies – as a part of India.
Another viewpoint holds that the traditionally peaceful Galwan River has now become a hotspot because it is where the LAC is closest to the new road India has built along the Shyok River to Daulet Beg Oldi (DBO) -- the most remote and vulnerable area along the LAC in Ladakh.
Along the 800 kilometre LAC in Ladakh, there have traditionally been just five trouble spots, where the two sides dispute the LAC. These are Chumar, Demchok, Pangong and two places near DBO. The PLA’s ingress into the Galwan River valley opens up a new and worrying chapter.
Labels: China, defence planning, Indian Air Force, Indian Army, Indian Navy, Inside Tales, Internal security, Morale, region, strategy
