Army well prepared, China unlikely to try any misadventure: Senior officer

Eastern Army Commander Lt Gen Krishna was referring to Chinese road-building team's incursion into Arunachal

The Indian Army is very well prepared everywhere and China is unlikely to try any misadventure any more, GOC-in-C, Eastern Command, Lt Gen Abhay Krishna said today.

He was referring to the latest incident of a Chinese road-building team breaching into Indian territory at Tuting in Arunachal Pradesh.

Krishna said the Indian Army was there and the Chinese had to retreat leaving behind their equipment.

"We are very well prepared all over. In Tuting, we were there and they had to run away leaving their equipment behind. I don't think they will try any of these misadventures any more," Lt Gen Krishna, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Army Command told newspersons here on the occasion of Army Day.

Krisha said this in reply to a question on the preparedness of the Indian Army following the 74-day Doklam standoff at the India-China-Bhutan tri-junction over Chinese road-building efforts inside Bhutanese territory.

Asked whether the Indian Army returned the road construction equipment to the Chinese in Tuting that they had left behind, he said it has been given back to them a few days after.

"We are a very mature nation. So we have returned it. It was returned after few days when they came back and negotiated. We identified to them the line on the ground that from here onwards you cannot get across because the Indian territory starts from there.

"They understood all that and they apologised. They said that it was possibly a mistake on the part of the people on the ground and it won't happen again," the GOC-in-C said.

"We are there, we are prepared for any eventuality. We will do our best and give our best to safeguard the territorial integrity," he asserted.

Krishna said that there has been no change in status quo at Doklam since August 28.

He said that the Army is developing logistics and infrastructure on the strategic Bramhaputra River that flows down from China into Arunachal and then into Assam.

"Troops have to move fast in case of any eventuality. The entire Indian Army can't be sitting on the border all the time. We are spread all over, so we need to have all the means available to reach in the least possible time. So we need all these resources available," the Eastern Army Commander said.

Answering a query on available logistics and infrastructure in remote areas in the north-east in view of the recent incursion near Tuting, he said the Indian Army has its footprints everywhere.

"Every area cannot be so well prepared. Arunachal is a huge state, but we have our footprints everywhere and it is our job to reach there. We don't have to have a road to reach everywhere," he said.

All these areas are under surveillance, he said that while some areas are patrolled regularly, some are checked periodically depending on what the forces visualise and anticipate.

Krishna said that raising of the Mountain Strike Core was going on.

Asked whether some units of the core would be based in West Bengal, he said the Mountain Strike Core has a number of units and "so obviously they will be spread.