The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) on Monday operationalised its strategic command at Leh in the Ladakh region of Jammu & Kashmir after moving it from Chandigarh as part of a plan to counter the ever-increasing Chinese military build-up in the Tibetan Autonomous Region.
The North West frontier of the ITBP, headed by an Inspector General of Police-rank officer equivalent to a Major General in the Army is tasked to guard the 3,488-km India-China border in peace times. It has now been made operational from Ladakh from Monday, officials said.
The Indian tricolour and the paramilitary’s flag were unfurled to herald the new move and the frontier will be operating from the existing premises of the ITBP sector headquarter, they said.
ITBP Director General SS Deswal has sanctioned more infrastructure including buildings and logistics for the new command. The DG is expected to visit the formation some time soon. A decision to the effect was taken in January this year to shift the command from Chandigarh to Leh, which are separated by a distance of 960 km.
Leh district in the Himalayan mountain of Jammu & Kashmir is the base for Army’s 14 Corps which is headed by a Lt General-rank officer and the shift is expected to facilitate a better interaction between the two forces in terms of strategic and defence planning.
The Army, which carved out a separate Corps in Leh after Jammu and Srinagar following the Kargil incursion in 1999, has been demanding operational control over the ITBP. The proposal has been rejected by the Government.
Location of the ITBP and the Army in the same region will resolve the coordination issue between the two forces.
The Union Home Ministry had first mooted the proposal for this strategic move in 2015 but it did not materialise.
The new ITBP frontier will have command of about 12 battalions (12,000 personnel) deployed along the Chinese border that runs along Jammu & Kashmir, a move intended to increase the presence of the troops on the icy, blizzard-prone mountainous border.