SRINAGAR: The Indian army is preparing for the winter deployment of its forces personnel along the Line of Actual Control as talks with China over the Ladakh border have not come to fruition.
“The hopes of an early resolution of the crisis are fast receding. India and China have around 50,000 troops each in the region, backed by tanks, artillery and air defence assets. Army sources said each will calibrate its winter deployment according to what the other side does. Given the harsh Ladakh winter, the two sides, sources said, may have to come down from some of the heights they currently occupy, and there could be a slight reduction in the number of troops,” Indian Express reported.
Quoting official, the report said the countries are prepared for deployment through the winter months, and the Chinese have even arranged optical fibre cables for better communication.
“The distance between the Chinese base and their positions on the heights of the Pangong Tso north bank is much more than what Indian troops have to cover, and this makes the PLA positions untenable,” added another official.
Indian troops have also readjusted positions on the north bank, the report says.
Further, the report said: “There is no meeting ground, no common ground between both,” a senior Army officer said, adding that one of the major issues between the two sides is “lack of trust”, especially after the Galwan Valley incident in which 20 Indian Army personnel died in clashes with Chinese troops on June 15.
