Border With China Turns Hot

Indeed, the Chinese intrusion this time in the Daulat Beg Oldie area in Ladakh region, close to Aksai Chin, is of much more serious nature than the previous such intrusions, which were brushed aside as the routine affair by the Government of India and the Army alike.

It is different from the days when the Chinese troops would come, write their claim on rocks or shower pamphlets from choppers, dismantle Indian bunkers, saying that Indian shepherds should stay away from the Chinese pastures, and stop work on the roads. This time, it is much more serious than simple posturing.

Now, it seems that during all the previous intrusions and thereafter sending their troops to Gilgit and Baltistan area in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, Chinese were testing the waters: to what extent India would respond and how.

Since the Indian side depended more on toothless diplomacy and refrained from heeding the needs of the Army, what has emerged is that China has overturned the peace and tranquility pacts signed between the two countries. It is a clear design to escalate tensions on the Line of Actual Control (LAC), so that India diverts more of its military power and energy to the eastern borders. That would strategically help the Pakistanis who are on the western borders of the country.

Timing is important. This time around the snow starts melting and the intrusion of militants with weapons, rises from across the Line of Control (LoC) that divides Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan. The Indian Army has dedicated much of its attention toward the western sector, to stop the intrusion because the intruders replenish the pool of militants in the hinterland and thus cause problems for the security forces and the people alike. It is common knowledge that next year when the NATO troops would be saying good bye to Afghanistan, Pakistan Taliban and its off shoots would divert their men and lethal machinery toward Kashmir. It has been declared in no uncertain times by the de-facto Lashkar-e-Toiba chief Hafiz Mohammad Sayeed.

In the aftermath of the recent incident of China having set up its tented post on DOB, the Army has viewed it very seriously and the matter is to be taken up with Beijing, but everyone knows that what the results would be. It has happened in the past too, and it would happen again, because the Indian Army is in the most disadvantageous position-it lacks access to the LAC through paved roads, nor it has the necessary equipment. To quote Gen (Retd) BS Jaswal, when he was the Northern Command chief of the Indian Army, that “India is no match to the logistical and other facilities as compared to China”. The situation has not improved even a bit in the past three years, rather it has worsened, because the state government has denied Indian Army the land to build its operational facilities and dump ammunition, despite the fact that for six months, entire Ladakh region, also known as the cold desert, remains cut off from rest of the world, as all its surface links are shut by heavy snow that rises upto 25 to 30 feet and the temperatures dip to 30 degree Celsius.

On the other side of the LAC, China has sent more than 9,000 Peoples Liberation Army men in Pakistan occupied Kashmir in the garb of engineers and workers, they have also constructed airstrips and world-class roads up to the borderline. The Indian side can only watch it happening helplessly.