ITBP asked to keep eye on border activity

NEWDELHI:: Intelligence agencies are assisting the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) technologically and providing it satellite imagery as the government has directed the force to solidify its presence and keep an eye on the movement of Chinese troops along the 3,488 km long IndiaChina border from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh, two officials said. More troops were being rushed to frontier, they added.

Tensions between India and China have escalated since Monday when at least 20 Indian troops were killed after Chinese soldiers attacked them with clubs studded with nails and stones in Ladakh’s remote Galwan Valley.

The officials cited above said the border guarding force was being provided with the imagery to ascertain if Chinese troops were trying to transgress from other areas along Line of Actual Control (LAC), the de facto border between the two countries.

ITBP troops are deployed at 180 border outposts (BoPs) along LAC in Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh in a treacherous terrain located between 9,000 feet to 18,750 feet above sea level, where temperatures can dip to minus 45 degrees C.

“Each BoP usually has a strength of 100 to 110 personnel but following aggressive behaviour of [Chinese] People’s Liberation Army in the Ladakh sector and... [the attack] particularly, we are sending more troops from the battalion headquarters and other postings,” said an official who did not wish to be named.

A second official said satellitebased surveillance is important for border forces to know the movement of Chinese or even Pakistani troops.

The government had decided to make ITBP the nodal agency for a G-SAT Centre in Delhi to monitor things like Chinese troop movement, their strength along LAC in case of a similar situation after the 2017 Doklam standoff. The centre is yet to become operational. The government is also yet to raise four more ITBP battalions that it had decided in 2017 for better border management.

Top ITBP officials could not be reached for a comment on the matter while the Union home ministry said it has no additional information to share.