Swift mobilization and deployments, using the latest weapons and equipment, were carried out at different locations in north Bengal during the exercise “Trishakti Prahar”, which culminated with an integrated firepower exercise in the Teesta field firing ranges on Tuesday, sources said.
The Indian armed forces have taken a series of steps to “mitigate” the threat to the Siliguri Corridor or the “Chicken’s Neck”, which is a narrow strip of land that connects the northeast with the rest of India, as well as other vulnerable areas in the region
The integrated Army drills come ahead of the massive `Poorvi Akash’ air combat exercise by the IAF in the entire eastern sector from February 1 to 5, which will include Rafales and Sukhoi-30MKI fighters flying from airbases like Hasimara, Chabua and Tezpur, as was first reported by TOI.
During the Trishakti Prahar exercise and firepower drills, witnessed by the Army’s Eastern Command chief Lt-General R P Kalita, the efforts of all agencies including the civil administration, civil defence organizations, police and CAPFs were coordinated to ensure efficient movement and quick mobilization.
“The firepower exercise was aimed at synergizing the firepower assets of the armed forces and CAPFs to orchestrate an integrated battle. There was joint application of various ground and aerial assets to include latest generation fighters, helicopters, tanks, infantry combat vehicles, artillery guns and other weapons,” a source said.
Army chief General Manoj Pande had also reviewed the operational military preparedness along the LAC in Arunachal Pradesh on January 22-23, the first such visit to the border state after Indian and Chinese troops clashed at Yangtse in the crucial Tawang sector on December 9.
There has been an escalation in tensions along the 1,346-km stretch of the LAC in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh in the last three-four months, with the People’s Liberation Army having also increased the number of its troops in the eastern sector. This includes two additional `combined arms brigades’, each having around 4,500 soldiers with tanks, artillery and other weapons.
On the western sector of the LAC in eastern Ladakh, both India and China continue to keep over 50,000 troops forward deployed for the third consecutive winter. While there has been troop disengagement at Galwan Valley, Gogra and Pangong Tso-Kailash region, China has so far refused to discuss the much more crucial face-offs at Depsang Plains and Demchok.
