6 Indian Army Divisions shifted to border against Chinese threat
The heavy deployment by India has also sent across a message to the Chinese military that any misadventure to attempt altering the status quo on the LAC would not be possible.
In his recent visit to the Ladakh sector, Army chief Gen Manoj Pande reviewed the security situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in view of the Chinese threat for which the Indian Army has shifted six Divisions which were earlier deployed in counter-terrorism roles and after taking care of Pakistan front.
The military standoff with China has been going on for over two years now when the Chinese side attempted to change the status quo unilaterally by moving troops in large numbers against Indian positions. The Indian 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.
Senior government sources told ANI that after this rebalancing and realignment exercise was done over the last two years, two divisions (around 35,000 troops) have been feeding up from counter-terrorism roles for looking after the China border deployment.
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, they said.
Likewise, an Assam-based Division under the Tezpur-based Gajaraj Corps has been pulled out of its counter-insurgency role from the state and now its mandate is to look after the China border in the northeast, they said.
With the deduction of this formation, there is no Army unit now involved in counter-terrorism operations in the state of Assam, the sources said.
The 17 Mountain Strike Corps which earlier had tasks in the Ladakh sector also has now been confined to the Northeast only and has been given one more Division based out of Jharkhand. The division earlier was tasked to carry out strike operations along the Western front.
