Indo-Tibetan Border Police to Create 50 New Posts Along Border With China

New Delhi: Aiming to bolster its presence along the India-China border, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police has said it will create over 50 new posts and deploy about 8,000 fresh troops along the sensitive frontier even as it disapproved of becoming "warmongers" in the wake of several incursions taking place.

ITBP Director General Krishna Chaudhary, during the annual press conference on the eve of the forces' 54th Raising Day on Tuesday, said while he does not deny that incidents of transgression have taken place due to difference of perception of the border between ITBP-Army and the Chinese PLA, his agenda for the deployment of his force at this border was to guard it and not to wage war.

"We must not become warmongers. The objective is peace. The objective is not to fight a war but to guard (this border). All our neighbours are our friends and we want to enhance friendship with them. The perception that we are going to war (due to recent standoffs between the two sides) is not correct. There is no call for a major concern," the ITBP chief told reporters in New Delhi.

He said making "provocative statements" is not something that they want to do and India wants to have friendly relations with all its neighbours.

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While refusing to share the number of border transgressions that took place in the last year, Director General Chaudhary revealed that the force was building up its strengths by creating more border posts and inducting smart weather-proof facilities in these areas prone to snow blizzards and blinding storms.

"We have established six new border posts in Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh this year. In eight posts in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh we have augmented facilities and troops strength during the same period," he said.

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Director General Chaudhary said the force has also got a defence approval for setting up of a total of 52 new border posts in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim and ITBP was "on the verge" of getting the final government sanction for the creation of these fortified locations.

The force will deploy eight battalions (about 8,000 personnel) to man these new posts.

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"We have also requested the government to sanction us 10 new battalions so that we can have more units for rest and recuperation as most of our border guarding troops serve in extremely hard areas and icy conditions," the Director General said.