According to the government sources, since day one of the conflict, Indian Army Para Special forces and Indian Air Force’s ‘Garud’ operatives have been deployed. The main objective behind the deployment of MARCOS is to provide the naval commandos with extreme cold weather conditions and to enhance the integration level of the three services.
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“The MARCOS have been deployed in the Pangong lake area where the Indian and Chinese forces have been engaged in a conflict situation since April-May timeframe this year,” the sources said.
The sources further stated that the deployment is not just limited to the commandos but the special Navy operatives will be getting new boats for operations in the lake in addition to the existing infrastructure for operations in the lake.
Indian Army’s Special Forces including the Para Special Forces and Cabinet Secretariat’s Special Frontier Force have been operating in Eastern Ladakh for carrying out special operations for a long time.
The ‘Garud’ operatives of the Indian Air Force, equipped with Igla shoulder-fired air defense systems, moved to hilltops on the strategic heights on the Line of Actual Control (LAC), to take care of any fighter or other aircraft of the enemy which may have tried to violate Indian air space, in the early days of the conflict.
It has been more than six months since the special troops belonging to both the Army and Air Force have been there on the forefront.
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With the Chinese also maintaining special troops on their side, on August 29-30 also, the Indian side had used the special forces to occupy strategic heights along the LAC to preempt the Chinese from doing so.
It is also worth mentioning, that the Indian Air Force started deploying Garuds in Kashmir valley after the 2016 Pathankot operations to give them the feel of real operations as part of plans of the then Army chief and now Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat. While the Indian Navy has deployed teams of its MARCOS in the Wular lake area of Jammu and Kashmir to tackle terrorism there.
Proving their mantle soon after the deployment, the ‘Garud’ operatives after eliminating a team of terrorists led by the nephew of 26/11 terrorist Zaki Ur Rehman Lakhvi, earned one Ashok Chakra, three Shaurya Chakras, and many other gallantry awards.
After that operation, the Air Force has been sending ‘Garud’ teams for forwarding deployment in Kashmir valley on regular basis.
The Indian Army too has its special forces battalions deployed in the Kashmir valley for counter-terrorist operations including the ones which carried out surgical strikes in 2016.