Army counter deploys after PLA Pangong Tso bridge challenge

The new Chief of Army Staff General Manoj Pande conducted a security review of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s positions in East Ladakh and counter-deployments of the Indian Army earlier this month, in the wake of the Chinese Army constructing a double-span bridge 16 kilometres east of the once contested finger 8 on the north banks of Pangong Tso.

Making his priorities clear, General Pande spent his first visit to East Ladakh after taking over as Chief on May 1, auditing LAC deployments, people familiar with the matter said.

HT learns that General Pande was satisfied with Indian Army deployments along the 1597 km LAC in East Ladakh, but a serious note has been taken of frantic military infra upgradation by PLA in Occupied Aksai Chin area. Both the armies are matched in deployment across the LAC with Chinese armour and rocket regiments stationed at Rudog base, south of Pangong Tso, and at Xiadullah in the restive Xinjiang military region. The PLA Air Force has stationed its fighters and bombers at Gar Gunsa across Demchok and at Hotan airbase in Xinjiang.

The Indian Army is also fully deployed along the LAC with roads and bridges that can accommodate tanks or armoured personnel carriers all the way up to Daulet Beg Oldi and as many as seven bridges coming up on Galwan river to handle any military emergency.

According to satellite pictures studied by the Indian Army, the first bridge built over the narrowest part of Pangong Tso at Khurnak Fort was 6m wide with the capacity to handle jeeps. At Khurnak Fort, the Pangong Tso is only 354 meters wide and hence the PLA decided to bridge it for faster deployment of troops. However, the Indian Army has noted that the second bridge currently being built side by side to the first bridge is 11m wide and has the capacity to handle 70 tons of load, which is more than the weight of the heaviest Chinese tank.

Not only will this bridge connect the north and the south banks of Pangong Tso, but PLA engineers are already building a road from the bridge to Moldo garrison across Chushul and a PLA military base camp behind Spanggur Tso. The military assessment is that not only does the twin bridge cut the road loop to Rudog base but also allows for faster deployment were India to enact the August 29-21, 2020, action by suddenly occupying heights on the south banks of the lake. The Indian military action during that period not only took the PLA by surprise but also forced China to settle for military disengagement on both banks of the lake with the creation of buffer zones.

People familiar with the matter said that while the twin bridges in Khurnak Fort area are beyond the LAC perception of India and hence technically on territory that the PLA occupied in 1959, Chinese soldiers continue to be forwardly deployed on patrolling point 15, which is in Kugrang Heights and en-route the shortest path from Panging Tso to Galwan Valley.

As of now, military disengagement has only taken place in Galwan Valley, Pangong Tso (both banks) and Gogra-Hot Springs area. The Indian army wants PLA to first restore April 2020 status quo ante in PPT 15 and then resolve the patrolling issues in Depsang Bulge (south of DBO sector) and the Charding Nulllah Junction in Demchok. Till the time these military objectives are achieved, New Delhi is in no mood to normalize ties with Beijing, the people added.