China builds L-shaped army base along LAC in Arunachal; villagers click photos

China has built a massive military base near its border with India in Arunachal Pradesh even as New Delhi is trying to match Beijing’s infrastructure push along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Local villagers who strayed to the other side of the border for hunting shot a few photos of the base of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) in September and handed them over to the Indian authorities.

The photos, accessed by The Federal from a reliable source, show an L-shaped tin-roofed concrete army barrack amidst thick vegetation. A few PLA vehicles are seen parked near the base. A few houses are also seen nearby.

Confirming the veracity of the photos, Indian Army sources privy to the development said the base has been constructed very close to the LAC in the Gelling area of Upper Siang district. At least 1,000 personnel could be housed in the PLA base believed to be built in January this year, just 3 km from the LAC, army sources said, adding that the aerial distance of the camp from the border will be around 1 km.

Villagers dare

Pema Lapchi, Zila Parishad Member (ZPM) of Gelling, and Obong Taron, an elder of Zido village, whose residents clicked the pictures, corroborated the development. They said the villagers handed over the pictures to the “appropriate Indian authorities”.

“I am aware of the pictures that some of our people clicked taking a great risk. This place where the PLA set up its base is just opposite to Gelling,” Lapchi told The Federal.

“Earlier also we had witnessed China building huge infrastructure in its territory close to the LAC. A few years back, they (the Chinese) even dared to enter Indian territory with JCB and other heavy road construction machinery and equipment with the intent to construct a road. However, they retreated after facing stiff opposition from the locals,” Lapchi added.

“Whatever the Chinese are doing in their own territory is fine… but they will face stiff opposition from the local Arunachal villagers if they dare to enter India. We Arunachalis are Indians, and patriotism is in our blood," he added.

Army sources said the PLA was gradually increasing its presence near the LAC in Arunachal Pradesh and had ratcheted up its surveillance of India.

Army confirmation

“The Chinese are constantly monitoring activities on the Indian side of the LAC using high-definition Pan, Tilt and Zoom (PTZ) cameras, particularly in the highly-sensitive Tawang sector,” an Army official said on condition of anonymity. “The Chinese can even read what is written on your ID card,” the official told this correspondent during a recent visit to the LAC.

The Indian Army is apprehensive that similar surveillance mechanisms are also installed in the latest PLA base that came up near Gelling. To counter the Chinese, it is reliably learnt that India has sanctioned the setting up of separate intelligence gathering units to be placed in between the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) posts along the LAC. According to the sources, these units will have personnel from the Intelligence Bureau and the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and will be headed by a senior intelligence officer.

India is currently implementing its ambitious Vibrant Village Programme (VVP) along the LAC to increase its physical presence near the sensitive border.

Border infrastructure

The project was unveiled by Union Home Minister Amit Shah at Kibithu in Anjaw district of Arunachal Pradesh early this year.

“Due to implementation of VVP schemes in Arunachal Pradesh, the locals who had earlier migrated to towns and cities for the lack of basic amenities in the bordering villages of the state, have started coming back. This is a very positive sign,” pointed out Taron, the village elder of Zido.

Taron further said: “Since there were not many facilities in the villages bordering LAC, many villages migrated over the years to small towns nearby, where there is a school, some facilities for basic health care, some electricity. Now, since gradually facilities have started reaching the border villages, people have started coming back to their ancestral villages.”

This is a strategic move, said an Army Colonel. “It is a known fact that India has moved its advanced weaponry to the Chinese frontier. But all these weapons are not enough to secure the border without human intelligence, which often comes from local villagers as was the case with these latest set of pictures.”

(The writer is a Dibrugarh-based journalist covering upper Assam and Arunachal Pradesh for over two decades.)