Reorienting its strategy against China, the Indian Army, in the past three weeks, has occupied six new major hills along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. The Indian forces have been in a standoff vis-à-vis the PLA troops for the past few months and are now gearing for a long winter haul in the Himalayas.
“The Indian Army has occupied six new heights between 29 August and the second week of September. The new hill features being occupied by our troops include the Magar hill, Gurung Hill, Recehen La, Rezang La, Mokhpari and the dominating height over Chinese positions near Finger 4,” top government sources told ANI. As per the agency report, bases on these sources, these hill features were “lying dormant” and the Indian Army had occupied them before the Chinese Army which was eyeing to sit on the dominating heights and now India’s troops have an edge over the adversary in those areas.
Sources said the foiling of the Chinese Army’s attempts in occupying the heights led to the firing of bullets in the air on at least three occasions from the northern bank of Pangong Tso to the southern bank of the lake. The sources clarified that the Black Top and the Helmet Top hill features are on the Chinese side of the LAC while the heights occupied by the Indian side are on the LAC in Indian territory.
After the occupation of heights by the Indian Army, the Chinese Army has deployed around 3,000 additional troops of its combined arms brigade including its infantry and armoured troops near the Rezang la and Rechen La heights.
The Moldo garrison of the Chinese Army also has been fully activated with additional troops in the last few weeks by the People’s Liberation Army.
After the Chinese aggression, the Indian security forces are working in close coordination and operations are being conducted under close monitoring of the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane.
India and China have been engaged in major conflict near Pangong Lake and several other friction points from Sub Sector North to the Chushul area of Ladakh. India also changed the rules of engagement of not using weapons during clashes with the Chinese after the PLA betrayed Indian soldiers in the Galwan valley and 20 Indian soldiers were killed there in June, this year.
With ANI Inputs