India has stepped up its defense preparedness along the borders with China in Arunachal Pradesh, following last month's transgression by nearly 250 soldiers of the Peoples' Liberation Army in the northeastern state's East Kameng district, from the 15,000-foot-high Line of Actual Control. Barely few kilometers from the boundary, the Indian Army conducted its first ever exercise code named 'Operation Bunker Bust' over the weekend.
BOOSTING TAWANG SECTOR'S FORWARD POST
The drill, aimed at boosting surveillance and response from the Army dugouts in the forward posts of Arunachal Pradesh's Tawang sector, was witnessed by an India Today TV team.
Indian troops, highly-placed military sources said, have been ordered to force the PLA back in case they attempt to overrun Indian territory again.
SOLDIER'S ARSENAL
Soldiers used the indigenously built 105-mm field guns in this weekend's Operation Bunker Bust. As part of the exercise to ensure combat readiness, infantry troops fired light-machine and sub machine guns to destroy enemy bunkers in coordinated strikes. Troops were also seen using high-tech surveillance equipment from under the bunkers to keep track of the PLA's activities.
At Bumla, the furthest of army posts in Tawang district, more than 100 Indian soldiers have been trained in the Chinese languages, senior military officials said.
CHALLENGES DISCOVERED
The Chinese, said Tawang Brigade commander DS Kushwaha, must realize the presence of Indian troops in these areas. "They also must realize that we are keeping an eye on their movement," Brig Kushwaha told India Today TV. The LAC, he insisted, remained under intense Indian surveillance. But the India Today TV crew found inadequate infrastructure posed a momentous challenge to Army movements from Guwahati to Tawang.
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