Amid the raging border dispute with India in Ladakh, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Tibet Military Command has held night time "infiltration exercises behind enemy lines" at an elevation of 4,700 meters in high-altitude region. According to the Communist Party-run Global Times, the drill was held at 1 am on an undisclosed date in the Tanggula Mountains.
"During the march, vehicles turned off their lights and used night vision devices to avoid hostile drone reconnaissance. After encountering defensive obstacles built by the enemy, the scouts sent drones and dropped explosives to clear them," the Chinese Daily said.
During the mock battle, PLA scouts fired more than 2,000 munitions, including mortar shells, rifle grenades and rockets. "The exercise not only tested the results of the troops' training with newly commissioned equipment but also placed them in an extremely complicated situation," the report quoted Ma Qian, commander of the scout battalion involved in the drills, as saying.
Notably, the Global Times report also stated that "China and India share borders at the high altitude area, and incidents have recently occurred between the two countries' troops, and both sides reportedly reinforced deployments."
Chinese PLA studying Ladakh terrain
The development has come days after the International Business Times, India reported that the Chinese military has created a massive scale model of Ladakh at their HelanShan training area to study the terrain. Experts told us that the motive behind such a big scale model of an Indian territory could be "war exercise".
India and China have been engaged in a standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh and Sikkim since last month. While the government has not revealed much about the standoff, media reports claimed that the Chinese soldiers have taken control of a large area of Indian territory and deployed massive troops near the Ladakh border.
On Tuesday, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh acknowledged that China has moved its troops in "Acchi Khasi Sankhya (significant numbers)" at the site of the dispute and that both sides will hold another round of military-level talks on June 6 to resolve the border dispute.
