Posted on 08/11/2017 8:25:22 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Exclusive: Army Mobilises Sappers, Engineers Along China Border
Chandan Nandy
Updated: 11 August, 2017 2:33 AM IST
Besides infantry troops and artillery units of the Sukna-based 33 Corps, the Indian army has mobilised sappers and engineers from Panagarh in lower Bengal to bolster its presence along the India-China borders in Sikkim.
Army sources revealed to The Quint that the sappers and engineers' units have been made part of this massive mobilisation, comprising between 30,000-40,000 troops, for building bridges across mountainous streams in the higher reaches where the network of roads "may not be in the best of conditions in the monsoons".
While the movement of the 33 Corps, which is stationed at Sukna near Siliguri in West Bengal, has been in response to the Chinese People's Liberation Army's efforts to reinforce their side of the border in Tibet with bunkers and other fortifications, the larger objective is "defensive" and therefore part of a strategy to build a show of force in the face of "continuing Chinese statements and building of bunkers that have a military objective".
The Indian army as well as the Ministry of External Affairs has sought to keep the latest mobilisation of troops under wraps with the actual movement of troops carried out over the last 20-25 days being described as "trickle up" so as not to cause any alarm in the border regions.
The troop movement from Sukna began about 20-25 days ago.
The deployment, according to sources, is taking place stealthily so as not to attract attention, either at the national or international level. This is being described as a “trickle up” method.
The standoff, one of the longest in the history of confrontations between the Indian Army and the PLA, is nowhere close to being resolved even after National Security Adviser Ajit Doval’s visit to Beijing last month, where he met his counterpart State Councilor Yang Jiechi on the sidelines of a BRICS nations’ meeting.
P!
I like India and most Indians. I’m not sold on their military capabilities. I hope they can bounce the ChiComs. This seems a more likely flash point for war than the others being touted right now.
The timing of this is absolutely perfect..!
it makes me wonder if this was orchestrated between us/India.
Great..!
India deploys more troops along China border in Sikkim, Arunachal
Or, horrifying prospect, India and China.
Preppers around the world most affected.
Seems like we should let India and China to duke it out. Just so long as we don’t have to deal with the fallout, radioactive or refugees. Isolate them both and reduce the world population by 2-3 billion people.
India is not our ally, they are a leech. They do not take deported Indian citizens back, despite Trump’s promise to force them to. They do not respect our intellectual property rights anymore then does China. They are both Third World cesspools with nuclear weapons.
Agree 100%.
President Trump has inherited an unbelievable mess. Pray that the "never-Trumpers" wake up and realize that the US has to let him govern, or there could be serious repercussions for civilization as we know it.
What’s a sapper? Someone who uses a sap?
In the British Army ‘sappers’ has always been the colloquial term for the Royal Engineers - a sap being a tunnel driven under enemy positions to place mines etc. Presumably the Indian Army simply inherited the term from the British (as they did most of their military customs).
Sappers...good.
No army should be without a lot of maple syrup in the morning.
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