India plans a special strike force for Tibet

By Tendar Tsering DHARAMSHALA, September 2: After the recent citing of a reported Chinese spy ship in Indian waters and the war-ready military build up on the Tibetan side of the border, the Indian military is planning its own special strike force. A newspaper based in Singapore has reported that India is adding a special strike force of 35,000 – 40,000 soldiers targeting the Tibetan border to its earlier plans of raising two new military divisions on the Indo-Tibet border. Citing an unnamed “senior Indian official” in the Indian capital of New Delhi, The Straits Times reported that the strike force is meant to move into Tibet as a challenge against Beijing. “The new strike force is meant to move into Tibet as a retaliatory counter-measure should Beijing pierce through Indian defences at any point,” The Straits Times reported. The unnamed source told The Straits Time that the military build up will proceed rapidly and is being considered as "an essential step" from Indian side to signal that "India is not weak." "There is little sense in having a trillion-dollar economy and rapid growth rates if we are seen to be incapable of defending our interests," the official was reported as saying. India and China occupied Tibet share a 3488 km long disputed border which was the cause of a short but bloody war in 1962. Since then, the two Asian giants have shared uneasy military ties with a series of border talks failing to yield much result. China is the second largest spender on military in world with an official military budget of about US$91.5 billion, a 12.7% rise from 2010