In a surprise move which will further aggravate the woes of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) along the effective Indo-Tibet border in Eastern Ladakh, India has deployed its elite Marine Commandos (MARCOS) of the Indian Navy in and around Pangong Tso lake, which has emerged as the biggest region of contention between the two Asian giants. The Navy commandos are also soon going to get new boats for operations in the lake along with the existing infrastructure for operations in the area. This shows that India is preparing to perhaps forcefully evict the Chinese out of Pangong Tso if talks fail to yield any results.
India and China have been engaged in a tense military standoff at the Indo-Tibet border in Eastern Ladakh since May. The armies of the two countries also violently clashed multiple times, with the bloodiest of clashes witnessed in June resulting in 20 Indian troops being killed in action, and innumerable Chinese fatalities. MARCOS, the highly-specialised commando force of the Indian Navy is the latest addition of Special Forces roped into the region to give China a bloody nose. Already, the Indian Air Force’s Garud operatives and Indian Army’s Para Special Forces have made life hell for the PLA troops in Eastern Ladakh.
“The MARCOS have been deployed in the Pangong lake area where the Indian and Chinese forces have been engaged in a conflict situation since April-May timeframe this year,” sources told news agency ANI. Hindustan Times reported that the Indian Army’s Special Forces including the Para Special Forces and Cabinet Secretariat’s Special Frontier Force have been operating in Eastern Ladakh for carrying out special operations for a long time. The Indian Air Force’s Garud Special Forces, meanwhile, moved to hilltops on the strategic heights on the Line of Actual Control along with their Igla shoulder-fired air defence systems in the early days of the conflict to take down any aircraft (fighter or otherwise) of the enemy which may have tried to violate Indian air space.
Read more: With every passing day, the Chinese PLA is getting buried deeper and deeper in Ladakh snow
The most elite of Indian Special Forces including the MARCOS, being deployed to Eastern Ladakh shows that India is preparing to take on any contingency in the region. China has already begun shaking in its boots at the very name of India’s Special Frontier Force (SFF). With all of the country’s Special Forces being deployed to forward areas in Eastern Ladakh, kicking out China will not be much of an uphill task for India. PLA troops are in any case in no position to indulge in combat, as the winter chills continue to make survival impossible for them.
TFI had earlier reported that on an average, one Chinese soldier is dying every day along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh, the de facto Indo-Tibet border due to the inhospitable climatic conditions prevailing in the region. Already pampered and raised as lone children, the CCP’s negligence and indifference towards PLA troops is in no way helping them put up a spirited fight against the well-acclimatised and battle-hardened Indian Army. Without proper clothing and accommodation, the PLA troops are dying a painful death in the Himalayas.
Read more: How the CCP is killing its own soldiers at the LAC
The deployment of Indian Navy’s MARCOS in Pangong Tso Lake comes as no boon for the Chinese. Even while Indian sources claim that the deployment of MARCOS has been done to enhance the integration of the three services and provide the naval commandos’ exposure to extreme cold weather conditions, the fact remains that if push were to come to shove, the sissy-like PLA troops would be no match for the Indian Navy’s special commandos.
