(File photo of the Ladakh region)
While the standoff between Chinese troops and Indian security forces continues in Ladakh at Depsang Bulge in the Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) area, the focus is now shifting to the post-standoff measures that the Indian military needs take to avoid repetition of the current incident.
That DBO is strategically an important area for India's defences was known even before the 1962 border war between the two nations. Located right in the middle of what is officially known as Sub Sector North (SSN), DBO had a rough and ready airstrip available to Indian forces even before the 1962 war.
Located east of the Siachen glacier, the region is seen as strategically crucial for the Chinese, since the Khunjerab pass that connects China to Pakistan via the Karakoram Highway lies barely 30 kilometres north of this area
Another worry for China is that the Karakoram Pass that links China's mainland to the restive Xinjiang province (on Tuesday, 21 people were reported killed in clashes between Han Chinese and local Muslim Uighur population) is located close to the SSN.
Despite its strategic location, Indian defence planners have tended to ignore infrastructure development of this area. Until recently DBO could be reached only by air. Troops deployed in the forward areas had to march for three days from Sasoma in Nubra Valley or along the Shyok River before reaching DBO. Sources however say that recently a road along the Shyok River has been constructed to enable vehicular movement. The DBO airstrip, reactivated in 2008, is now able to handle AN 32 and hopefully the newly inducted C130 J medium lift aircraft.
So far however, the Indian Army deployment in the DBO area has been negligible.
Instead, it is the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) which has been entrusted with the task of guarding this stretch of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Although a detailed analysis of the current incident will reveal why the incursion of the Chinese troops went unnoticed, sources say the Army has already started reassessing its strategy in the area. Whether more troops will be deployed or only more sophisticated surveillance equipment should be inducted, will be decided in coming months.
Indian strategists are also analysing the preconditions set by the Chinese to withdraw from the current location.
How this standoff ends is anybody's guess at the moment, but from now on, India cannot afford to neglect the defence of DBO.
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