However, Army Chief Deepak Kapoor said that reported intrusions of Chinese forces in Bhutan was “a matter between the two countries”.
The relocation of the 27 Mountain Division to its original base at Kalimpong in West Bengal comes amidst heightened tensions on the China-Bhutan border, where the officer said Chinese troops destroyed two bunkers that Beijing claims were constructed on its territory. “It should be clearly understood that these troops were engaged on border guarding duties and not in a counter-insurgency role. To that extent, there is no reduction in troop levels in the state,” an officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity. There were indications, he added, that the Chinese were eyeing a move into the Dolam plateau in Bhutan that lies near the tri-junction of China, Bhutan and the Indian state of Sikkim.
The Chinese move would bring them closer to the strategically important Siliguri corridor in north Bengal, the officer said, hastening to add that there “was no immediate cause for alarm”. “The redeployment (of the division) is only a precautionary move. We have various mechanisms to deal with such issues,” he maintained.
Army officials described the movement from Jammu and Kashmir as “routine move-back of troops to their original locations”.
They said the forces being moved were all formations of the Kalimpong-based Army’s 27 Mountain Division, which had gone for counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir during Operation Parakaram in 2001.