India moves fighter jets, copters to forward bases facing China

New Delhi : India has moved its fighter jets and copters to the forward bases facing China, even as additional warships have been placed ready at the Bay of Bengal, signaling that India is ready and prepared to give befitting reply if escalation reported in ongoing troop’s confrontation.

"China has crossed our red-lines by brutally killing 20 of our soldiers in a premeditated attack (in Galwan Valley of eastern Ladakh on June 15). We are fully prepared for any spiraling of the escalation matrix. All necessary steps have been taken," a top military officer told the Times of India.

PLA did not show its intention of disengagement and it continued to gather more soldiers along LAC in the Galwan Valley region.

PLA troops, for instance, have built dozens of new fortifications from “Finger-4 to 8”(mountainous spurs separated by a distance of 8-km) on the north bank of Pangong Tso. Since early-May, they have been blocking all Indian patrols going west to east in the area, as was earlier reported by TOI.

India, on its part, has inducted frontline Sukhoi-30MKI, MiG-29 and Jaguar fighters into forward airbases, with IAF chief Air Chief Marshal R K S Bhadauria quietly visiting Leh and Srinagar on Wednesday.

IAF has fully activated all its airbases facing the northern borders with China, ranging from Leh, Srinagar, Awantipur and Bareilly to Tezpur, Chabua and Hasimara in the north-east, to further strengthen its military posture.

The situation has become tense after the military level talks after Galwan Valley attack came inconclusive.