According to the Times of India on December 23, the Indian “India-Tibet Border Police” (ITBP) forces responsible for confrontation with the People’s Liberation Army in the western section of the China-India-India border have applied to the government for a new assignment to carry out internal security tasks so that ITBP officers and soldiers operating in high altitudes and low temperature areas can Go to “healthy rest” to avoid them from having various health problems.
The force recently made this request to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Internal Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior, following an “ambitious” proposal to phase out the deployment of border troops in India and only in the border areas.
Sources revealed that ITBP has informed the parliament that because its main task is to guard the front line of the China-India border, it has suffered from bad weather and high altitude environment.
The force hopes to continue to be included in internal security responsibilities so that its personnel can “be able to rotate and deploy on the actual control line of the China-India border and the plain area”.
An ITBP official said: “Our ministry seeks to continue to deploy at a 60:40 scale, the former percentage is deployed along the line of actual control on the China-India border, which is mainly high mountain areas.
If this is arranged, the rotation of troops will be allowed. They face very bad, cold weather and poor terrain conditions on the front line.
“The ITBP forces face various cold weather-related diseases, such as frostbite and hypothermia due to thin air, storms and snow. Therefore, they need to leave these areas for a rest to maintain physical, psychological and emotional health,” he explained.
ITBP is trained in mountain warfare.
Most of its posts are located in the so-called Ladakh region to the pseudo-Arunachal Pradesh, including the western, middle and eastern sections, which range from 2,700 to 5,600 meters above sea level.
The Indian government recently began to develop a plan to gradually reduce the role of the Border Security Force (BSF), the Armed Border Guard (SSB) and ITBP in domestic security, and devote them to strengthening border forces.
Under this proposal, the Ministry of Home Affairs of India (MHA) is working on a “model” where guarantees of internal security responsibilities, including electoral guarantees, will be primarily assumed by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the country’s largest paramilitary force.
In the past, the three border forces have been drawn thousands of soldiers from the border to the interior every year to maintain law and order during the elections and to assist the police forces of Indian states to maintain the internal security situation within their jurisdiction.
“The redeployment of border troops deployed in the border area to use them for internal security duties has adversely affected border management,” said Guleria, BSF officer in charge of intelligence, in the report.
Another senior officer added that when these border troops are transferred, it will lead to the empty strength of 40% to 50% of the border line.
Indian media reported that these border troops have been instructed by the Ministry of the Interior in the past to continuously increase posts and bases, and the deployment of strongholds is becoming increasingly intensive.
