New Delhi: India has further reinforced its forward positions to counter fresh Chinese military build-ups and threatening moves in the high altitude region. Warning China of requisite retaliation if any redlines is now breached in Eastern Ladakh.

The warning comes after builders were fired for the first time in 45 years near Mukhpari top in the Chushul sector on Monday, and ahead of an expected meeting between Foreign Minister S. Jaishanker and his Chinese counterpart Wang Ye in Moscow on Thursday. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has taken to parading tanks and troops on the South Bank of Pangong Tso – Chushul area on a daily basis in a bid to intimidate Indian troops after they occupied multiple tactical heights there in a proactive military manoeuvre on August 29- 30. The dispute is being directed from the very top of the political – military hierarchy in China, not by the exuberance of local PLA commanders.

It can take any trajectory. But if China wants to start a war, it will also have to pay a heavy price, said the official, pointing out that the events on the LAC were not just an action- reaction sequence. The PLA might even try to grab heights else were in a tit for tat move but Indian commanders on the ground have been given full freedom to respond as a deem appropriate. Our soldiers on the heights are well armed and fully prepared. We have even driven tanks up the ridgeline near Rachni La, said the official. The message has been strongly conveyed to the PLA not to try to breach Indian perimeter defenses which includes barbed wire, established on the heights.

They constitute a redline. Infact, now here are we under prepared now, he added. the Indian security establishment’s assessment is that while China may positioned around 50K soldiers along the frontier in Eastern Ladakh as well as around 150 fighters, bombers and other aircraft at airbases in Xinjiang and Tibet, the deployments have not yet reached the threshold of a full blown conflict. According to the official sources PLA troops deployments along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh are not tactically geared for war as of now. But the pinpricks will continue.