14-day joint military exercise by Indian, B'desh armies begin on Feb 3

A 14-day joint military training exercise by Indian and Bangladesh armies was flagged off on Monday here in Umroi in Meghalaya, Defence officials said.

The exercise christened 'SAMPRITI-IX' is an important bilateral defence cooperation endeavour between India and Bangladesh, they said.

This is the ninth edition of the exercise which is hosted alternately by the two countries, the officials said.

The Bangladesh Army contingent is being led by Brigadier General Md Shafiul Azam and both armies will familiarise each other in various tactical drills and procedures.

Soldiers from both the armies will hold joint tactical operations like cordon and search, raid and house clearance drills.

"During the joint military exercise SAMPRITI-IX a command post exercise (CPX) and a field training exercise (FTX) will be conducted during the next two weeks," Defence PRO Wing Commander Ratnakar Sing, said.

For both CPX and FTX, a scenario where both nations are working together in a counter terrorism environment will be simulated under the UN Charter, he said.

The FTX curriculum is progressively planned in which the participants will get familiar with each others organisational structure and tactical drills, the Defence official said.

Subsequently, joint tactical exercise will be conducted wherein the battle drills of both the armies will be practised.

The training will culminate with a final validation exercise in which troops of both armies will jointly practice a counter terrorist operation in a controlled and simulated environment, he said.

Singh said greater cultural understanding will be emphasized to strengthen military trust and cooperation between two nations to understand each other at the tactical level.