PLA carries out drill in Tibet

BEIJING: A joint military brigade of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has recently carried out a “real combat drill” involving anti-nuclear, chemical and biological warfare in Tibet in the backdrop of the ongoing Sino-India border tension in eastern Ladakh.

The exercise, including commandos, armoured assault groups and soldiers trained for chemical warfare were drawn from various wings of the army.

It was organised by the Tibet military region under the Western theatre command (WTC), the largest of China’s five commands that is responsible for the Sino-India disputed border, extending for 3,488km from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh.

The news of the 24-hour long exercise held in late November was published in an official PLA news portal on Tuesday.

Chinese official military media rarely mentions drills that involve Chinese armed forces and non-conventional weapons.

The article described in brief the nature of the drill and what the participating soldiers were responding to but did not specifically mention where the exercise was held. “A joint military brigade under the Tibet military area command held a real-combat drill on a snowy plateau in late November,” the article said.

It was headlined: “A synthetic brigade of the Tibet military region carried out a cross-day and night mobile multi-arm coordinated actual combat drill”.

After rockets were launched and the armoured assault group was deployed, army engineers were called in to install explosives on the targeted “obstacle”, the article said. “The drill closely focused on the ‘enemy’ situation, focusing on key and difficult subjects such as day and night manoeuvring and multi-arms coordination, and tempered the firepower attack capability of the troops in complex environments,” the report added.

IT WAS ORGANISED BY THE TIBET MILITARY REGION UNDER THE WESTERN THEATRE COMMAND