Leh: After Army Chief Gen Pande’s visit to forward areas of Ladakh, the Indian Army has shifted six divisions previously deployed in counter-terrorism roles and after taking care of the Pakistan front towards China.
Amid ongoing standoff with China from past 2 years, the India Army has been doing rebalancing and realignment of its forces which were earlier more prepared for the Pakistan threat than the challenges faced from the Northern borders.
One division from Rashtriya Rifles was taken out from counter-terrorism roles from Jammu and Kashmir and has now been deployed in the Eastern Ladakh sector and would be there along with the 3 Division already based there, top government sources said.
Down below in Uttarakhand, a Division from a Strike Corps in Haryana has been reassigned to the Central Command to look after the Central sector where the Chinese have been staking claims.
To bolster the Northern Command, the Indian Army has also assigned two Divisions of the One Strike Corps to take care of the Ladakh sector as additional or reserve forces. The One Strike Corps was earlier totally focused on the Pakistan front but now will shift its focus towards the Northern borders.
To bolster the eastern sector, The 17 Mountain Strike Corps has now been fully dedicated for the eastern areas along the Line of Actual Control and is taking care of the entire northeast. It has also been given one additional Division based out of Jharkhand, the sources said.
With this, the Indian Army has also now sent across a message to the Chinese forces that they would not be able to ever carry out any other unilateral attempt to change the status quo as India is “far better prepared there than ever.”
