NEW DELHI: The PLA’s actions in eastern Ladakh will affect the entire India-China border including eastern sector forcing New Delhi to maintain troops all along the LAC in the coming days, feel former army commanders.
The unilateral movement by the Chinese has created an atmosphere of suspicion and this will affect the entire LAC, asserts Lt Gen DS Hooda (retd).
“The deployment pattern will change not just in eastern Ladakh but will be seen all across the LAC for a minimum of two years.”
The PLA will position its soldiers closer to the LAC, he says, adding the Chinese earlier kept troops much deeper inside their territory and moved them on vehicles due to better infrastructure.
There is now a shift in PLA deployment which was initially observed in the 2017 Doklam standoff. “The Chinese had constructed permanent defences post Dokalam.”
The 73-day Doklam standoff had seen the Chinese trying to unilaterally change the status quo by constructing a road into Bhutanese claimed area. New Delhi had sent its troops to bail out Thimpu.
Major General DK Mehta (retd), who commanded an army division in Sikkim, feels the Chinese have initiated another problem even while things remain tensed in Ladakh. This, he says, is in conjunction with their Logistics Base in Yatung Area.
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Even while the LAC tension was prevailing, China in June had claimed 3,300 sq km of Bhutanese territory saying it was ‘disputed territory’.
“The Chinese have claimed Bhutanese area in its east which is not connected to any border with Bhutan. The aim is to generate pressure around Tawang, which China claims to be part of South Tibet,” says Maj Gen Mehta.