Army to have Mountain
Strike Corps to take on China
43,000 strong force to
be prepared for offensives
JAMMU, June 3: To
counter the threat of China, whose troops have repeatedly been intruding or
ingressing inside the Line of Actual Control (LAC) into the Indian side in
Ladakh as well as other parts of the country, the Government of India is giving
final touches to Mountain Strike Corps, which would be fully equipped to launch
an offensive inside the enemy’s territory. Highly placed sources told Excelsior that the establishment of the
Mountain Strike Corps with an estimated 43,000 soldiers including 500 to 700
officers, who would be highly trained in mountain warfare and capable of taking
fight into the enemy’s territory was in the final stages. The number of
soldiers could go up as per the needs and requirements. “A detailed proposal of
the Defence Ministry for constitution of the Mountain Strike Corps has in-principle
been approved by the Union Government and it would get a formal nod in the
Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting in the next few days. As the
setting up of the new Corps would involve huge expenditure, the Defence
Ministry has already obtained the clearance from the Union Finance Ministry,’’
sources said.
They added that the
Mountain Strike Corps would not only be useful in tackling China but would also act as a deterrent against Pakistan as vast portion of the Line of Control
(LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir falls in
mountainous areas in the Kashmir Valley and twin border districts of Rajouri and
Poonch in Jammu
region. The Mountain Strike Corps, which is likely to have its headquarters at
Panagarh in West Bengal, would cover entire North East areas bordering China
including Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh besides Uttarakhand etc and, whenever
required, Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir.
Sources said three
Corps presently operating in Jammu and Kashmir
including Leh based 14 Corps, Kashmir based 15 Corps and Jammu based 16 Corps were trained in ground
war. The new proposed Mountain Strike Corps would be fully offensive in nature
and trained and prepared only for major offensives in case of mountain war with
China and Pakistan. Sources
said the Union Government proposed to make the Mountain Strike Corps fully
ready within the 12th Plan as it involved a huge expenditure running between Rs
70,000 crores to Rs 80,000 crores.
They added that the
Strike Corps would be capable of taking the fight into the enemy’s territory
within the few minutes and would also be trained in launching the nuclear
attacks. Sources said the Defence Ministry has also been strengthening tanks
and infantry combat vehicles in Ladakh and Sikkim. It was also developing
infrastructure along 4057 kilometers LAC as per the requirement. The new
Mountain Strike Corps will have two specialized high-altitude divisions for
rapid reaction force capability in mountains, which will give India the much needed strength against China.
Worthwhile to mention
here that India had faced many problems in its May-July 1999 Kargil war and
lost a number of officers and soldiers of Army and Air Force while evicting
Pakistani regular troops, who had captured the heights during the snowfall in
the winter. The proposal of Mountain Strike Corps had been mooted earlier also
but it was shelved on the ground that it would make the image of India as an
aggressive country. However, frequent ingressions by China in Ladakh and North East has
made the Indian leadership re-visit its strategy and give nod to set up the
Mountain Corps.
The new Corps would
also boost the Indian military’s strength, which was roughly based at 13.5 lakh
as against 22.5 lakh of China.
According to sources, India completely stands for peace and had no
intentions of any war with Pakistan
or China behind the launch
of Mountain Strike Corps but added that giving a boost to India’s striking capabilities had become
necessary in view of China
raising its infrastructure to a large extent along Indian border including Ladakh, Sikkim,
Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand etc. Sources admitted that the setting up of
Mountain Strike Corps was necessitated after increased transgressions by China
in Leh, which were followed by over 20 kilometers deep intrusions into Daulat
Beg Oldi sector in Ladakh a couple of months back followed by reports of
construction of five kilometers road along the LAC in the same district.
With additional
armoured regiments and infantry units based in Ladakh,
Sikkim and Uttarakhand, the
new Mountain Strike Corps will also make India
capable to launch counter offensive into Tibet in the event of a Chinese
attack, sources pointed out.
“With the development
of Agni-V and Agni-IV ballistic missiles — coupled with the ongoing progressive
deployment of Sukhoi-30 MKI fighters, spy drones, helicopters and missile
squadrons in the North East — the overall aim is to have “strategic deterrence”
in place to dissuade China from embarking on any “misadventure”, they added
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