The building of Karakorum Highway by China with tacit objective of establishing overland link between Xinjiang and Gwadar port of Pakistan was a clear indication of Sino-Pak strategy of encirclement of India. Pakistan also handed over the contract for converting Gwadar into a deep sea port on the mouth of the Arabia Sea to the Chinese. More aspects and manifestations of Sino-Pak hostility were yet to appear. A couple of years back, a good number of PLA personnel — reportedly anything between 10 and 15 thousand, were moved into Gilgit area — the disputed area of the State of Jammu and Kashmir, ostensibly for lending help in building the much needed infrastructure there. India expressed apprehensions of Chinese ulterior designs that could create more tension in the area.
India’s apprehensions are coming true. Of late, there has been disturbing news about some movement along the LoC on Pakistan side. Army has spotted senior PLA officials opposite to forward post in Nowgam sector in North Kashmir, presumably on a mission of developing some infrastructure. Presence of PLA in Tangdhar sector close to LoC has also been noticed where Chinese government-owned China Gezhouba Group Company Limited has been building a Jhelum-Neelum 970 MW Hydel power project. It may be reminded that activities pertaining to building strategic infrastructure in the area close to the LoC are the offshoot of Beijing’s 46 billion dollar China-Pakistan-Economic Corridor (CPEC) under which Gwadar port in Karachi is linked to Chinese Xinjiang province through Karakoram highway, an area under illegal occupation of China. Some intercepts reveal that Chinese PLA would be digging some tunnels in Leepa Valley, located in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), for building an all-weather road which will serve as an alternate route to reach Karakoram Highway.
Reports suggest that China plans not only building strategic infrastructure in the area like tunnels, dams, roads and air strips, but is also actively engaged in creating security structure in the shape of regular force for the protection of the assets it is creating. For this purpose China is reported to be planning to raise three Divisions comprising 30,000 men but under a local nomenclature only to mislead the world.
In an overall estimation, China and Pakistan working in tandem in the Gilgit-Baltistan region have begun to unfold the ulterior motive they have been nursing for many years and under the garb of so-called Economic Corridor. Pakistan achieves two objectives by inviting physical presence of PLA in the region. One is that she is strengthening her strategic and military position in the region to counter any threat from India who considers both Pakistan and China as illegal occupants of the area. Second purpose of Pakistan is to suppress the uprising of local people in Gilgit and Baltistan who have been vehemently opposing forcible occupation of their land by Pakistan since 1947 and are struggling for independence from Pakistani occupation. For China, a country which is obsessed with expansionism, this is a golden chance to flex her muscle so close to the LoC between India and Pakistan. Together, they work in tandem to throw a ring around India to her north. China is giving it a new interpretation calling the Sino-Pak link over Karakorum as an artery of the New Silk Road of Central Asia.
There is no difficulty in understanding that the presence of PLA officials and soldiers in an area so close to the LoC has one simple meaning and that is to create such facilities for the intruders and infiltrators as would enable them to accelerate the speed and frequency of clandestine entrance into our part of Kashmir and carrying out their subversive activities. Obviously, Indian Defence Ministry will have to take due notice of this new development indeed that asks for proper response. We think that this development asks for adequate and comprehensive response both on planning level and on ground level. We need to upgrade our northern border security strategy not necessarily restricted to defensive posture. Although India has to counter this new threat single handedly, yet she will also need to raise the issue on international platform as well because the presence of Chinese PLA in a region that is very critical to the Central Asia is a matter in which both Russia and the US, besides local powers, are involved. The corridor immensely strengthens China’s position and influence in Central Asia as far away as the Caspian coast. Keeping in mind the hydrocarbon reserves of some of the states in the region where China has invested enormous amounts and also established overland connectivity by road and rail. What is developing in Gilgit-Baltistan region as a result of Sino-Pak interface will have major impact on the map of contemporary strategies in the Asian Continent. Hark it! China is moving by stealth.
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