Army setting up new unit with eye on China
Mountain Division Will Be Stationed In Nagaland
Kolkata: The Indian Army is creating a new Mountain Division for the North-East, headquartered in central Nagaland or the adjoining areas of Upper Assam. Although it will be stationed in an area when the army is engaged in counter-insurgency operations, sources say the division could also have the task of keeping an eye on the Chinese border in neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh, the sources indicated.
The army brass is keeping the plan tightly under the wraps, as there were protests from the Chinese some time ago that induction of more troops in Arunachal could lead to an arms race in the region. The Indian Army is cagey about the role of the proposed division.
It is nothing much, a senior officer based in Dimapur said. It is not that we are going to induct 50,000 new troops. According to the brass, the role of a new formation cannot be determined properly until it participates in a war game. All the formalities are yet to be completed, said another officer, though it is learnt that the proposal was sanctioned long ago.
Nagaland earlier had a division stationed there to fight insurgency - the 8 Mountain Division which was subsequently shifted to J&K. Insurgency in Nagaland is now on a low key, after the two National Socialist Council of Nagaland factions entered into ceasefire agreements with the Centre.
Analysts say a division stationed in central Nagaland could have a counter-insurgency role in places like Tirap and Changlang in Arunachal Pradesh which are not far from the Myanmar border. It could also be mobilized rapidly to the China-India border in Arunachal in case of an emergency. Placing the mountain division away from Arunachal would circumvent the problem of inducting more troops near the international border in contravention of international agreements, sources said.
It is generally acknowledged that China has an upper hand in the Arunachal sector of the border. With extensive road and railway infrastructure at its disposal, China can quickly mobilize a large number of troops to the border. Chinese claim on Arunachal, incursions across the Line of Actual Control and presence of disputed areas have heightened Indias concerns. Compared with this, the road infrastructure on the Indian side of the border lags far behind, particularly in the central and eastern Arunachal.
Frequent Chinese incursions across the LAC at various places have prompted the strengthening of the army presence in Sikkim by bringing back to north Bengal a division that had moved to J&K during the Kargil conflict, sources said.
As militant activities in Nagaland are ebbing, the division will mostly be free to keep vigil on the disputed Chinese border in Arunachal Pradesh
