NEW DELHI: In the midst of the ongoing confrontation between India and China, the marine commandos (FRAMES) of the Indian Navy have been deployed to the Pangong lake area in eastern Ladakh.
The idea behind the deployment of MARCOS in eastern Ladakh where the Indian Air Force Garud operatives and the Indian Army Para Special Forces, who have been there since the first day of the conflicts, is to improve integrating the three services and providing exposure to naval commands. extremely cold weather conditions, government sources told ANI.
“The MARCOS have been deployed in the Pangong Lake area where Indian and Chinese forces have been involved in a conflict situation since April-May this year,” the sources said.
The Navy commandos are also soon to procure new boats for operations on the lake along with the existing infrastructure for operations on the lake, they said.
The Indian Army Special Forces, including the Para Special Forces and the Cabinet Secretariat Special Border Force, have been operating in East Ladakh to carry out special operations for a long time.
The Garud Special Forces of the Indian Air Force moved to the hilltops at the strategic heights in the Royal Line of Control (LAC) together with their Igla shoulder air defense systems in the early days of the conflict to take over any enemy fighters or other aircraft that may have attempted to violate Indian airspace.
Special troops belonging to both the Army and the Air Force have been there for more than six months.
Also from August 29-30, the Indian side had used special forces to occupy strategic heights throughout LAC to prevent the Chinese from doing so. The Chinese have also kept special troops on their LAC side.
The Indian Navy has deployed teams from its MARCOS to the Wular Lake Jammu and Kashmir area to deal with terrorism there. The Indian Air Force began deploying Garuds to the Kashmir Valley after the 2016 Pathankot operations to give them the feel of real operations as part of the plans of the then Army Chief and now Chief of Defense Staff, the General Bipin Rawat.
Shortly after their deployment, the Garuds proved their worth and won an Ashok Chakra, three Shaurya Chakras, and many other gallantry awards for taking out a team of terrorists led by 11/26 terrorist nephew Zaki Ur Rehman Lakhvi.
After that operation, the Air Force has been sending regular Garud crews for their advanced deployment to the Kashmir Valley.
The Indian Army has many of its special forces battalions deployed to the Kashmir Valley for counter-terrorism operations, including those that carried out surgical strikes in 2016.
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