Assam Rifles: Focus on China
Asia News Agency
Amrita Nayak Dutta (writes on defence and national security as part of the national bureau of The Indian Express) reports the Assam Rifles is planning critical operational changes so that it can be deployed for conventional roles along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in contingencies, while continuing to perform its traditional counter-insurgency duties in the Northeast and guarding the India-Myanmar border.
Plans are to ensure availability of more than 70 per cent of Assam Rifles soldiers for deployment along the LAC in the next few months in case of an immediate requirement.
Assam Rifles has 46 battalions and a sanctioned strength of more than 65,000 troops. Of these, 20 battalions are involved in guarding the India-Myanmar border and 26 battalions are involved in counter-insurgency roles, including two in Jammu and Kashmir.
Over the past three years, notes Dutta, “the defence establishment has taken several measures to increase vigilance and strengthen deployment along the LAC. These include reorienting two of its four strike corps for the mountains facing China in 2021 and freeing the Army from counter-insurgency roles in the Northeast — barring a mountain brigade based in Assam — to put a greater focus on China. A strike corps is primarily responsible for undertaking offensive cross-border action against the adversary."
Plans to counter China
Assam Rifles is usually deployed in counter-insurgency and border-guarding roles. The new move “underlines growing focus on China. AR’s plan to procure a range of weapons points to preparations for a conventional war-fighting role.
Over the next few months, there are also plans to make the force more technology intensive in keeping with this goal. As part of the process, the Assam Rifles is planning to procure a range of weapons, communication equipment and military vehicles.
“The procurement of the weapons and equipment is in line with the larger focus on China. The soldiers are also training regularly with the Army in various activities, such as mine laying and offensive roles,” an official said.
In his keynote address at the fourth edition of the Bob Khathing Memorial Lecture earlier this month, Director General of Assam Rifles Lt Gen P C Nair had said that China has been expanding its influence and presence in neighbouring countries such as Myanmar, Bangladesh and Nepal, through its Belt and Road Initiative, economic aid, military assistance and diplomatic pressure.
“The proximity of the Northeast with China and its role in India’s Act East Policy makes it strategically significant. It is a gateway for India’s engagement with Southeast Asia and the broader Indo-Pacific region,” he had said.
AR’s earlier operations along LAC: Troops of Assam Rifles had participated in the 1962 war and fought the Chinese in Tawang, Subansiri, Siang, Dibang and Lohit of Arunachal Pradesh, close to the LAC.
During the Galwan valley clashes with Chinese troops in 2020, Assam Rifles troops were sent to support the Army along the LAC in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.
