A report by the Border Security Force has flagged what it called increasing presence of Chinese military personnel on India’s border with Pakistan.
While the presence of Chinese troop in the Gilgit Baltistan region near the trijunction of the three countries was already known, the activities of Chinese soldiers and engineers have now spread to southern regions such as Rajasthan and Gujarat, India Today reported, quoting the BSF report.
The BSF report has flagged four new sectors on the Indo-Pakistan border near which Chinese activity has been detected — the southern part of Jammu & Kashmir near Rajouri, near Jaisalmer and Bikaner in Rajasthan and further south in Gujarat.
In Rajouri, Chinese soldiers were spotted training Pakistani troops.
Chinese experts were also spotted spying on an Indian airbase in Jaisalmer, the BSF report said. It was not clear whether the spying was carried out using drones or not.
Further along in the Bikaner sector, the Chinese are helping the Pakistanis build 180 bunkers.
Finally, in Gujarat, Chinese experts have been spotted helping Pakistan build air strips, India Today said.
Speaking on the matter, India’s junior minister for internal affairs, Hansraj Ahir, said countries must be wary of militarily helping Pakistan, which, he said, has a policy of using terrorism to further what it sees as its security objectives.
The move to help Pakistan is largely along expected lines as India is a common enemy for both Pakistan and China, which recently threatened India with total destruction as part of its efforts to get the country to back down from a skirmish along its border with India.
India has fought three wars with Pakistan and one with China.
China has been growing its engagement with Pakistan, including with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor which gives China extended economic and political powers in Pakistan in return for investing billions of dollars into the country’s infrastructure.
On its part, India too has reached out to China’s neighbors such as Japan and Vietnam in an effort to build its own alliances to increase its defence capabilities.
On India’s western border, the country has a strong relationship with Iran, which is also a victim of Pakistan’s new-age warfare tactics using propaganda and terrorist training camps.
India also has a growing presence in Afghanistan, though the landlocked nation is heavily dependent on Pakistan for logistical reasons, and has strong cultural ties to the country.