India is raising a second division of Mountain Strike Corps to strengthen its capabilities against neighboring China. The first division is stationed in Panagarh in West Bengal, the eastern Indian state.

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New Delhi (Sputnik)The second division of Mountain Strike Corps, which will be headquartered in Pathankot, will be raised to counter China to form a credible deterrence against the Chinese army.

The new 17 Mountain Strike Corps will have a strength of around 90,000 soldiers and it will take almost three years to become fully operational. It will consist of two new high-altitude infantry divisions and it will be spread from Arunachal Pradesh to Ladakh along the border with China.

“As far as the Strike Corps is concerned, we already have three Strike Corps against Pakistan and these are for plains that is basically one, two and twenty-one Corps. However, we were not having the Strike Corps in use against Chinese in mountains and hence a 17 Strike Corps for mountains have been raised and it will be fully deployed along the China border. So far we only have a defensive mechanism against the China, however with the Strike Corps coming and being raised, we will also have an offensive mechanism,” Major General (Rtd) AK Siwach, a former head of the Territorial Army, told Sputnik.

“As far as the Chinese are concerned, the threat is real… We should be well-prepared against any contingency,” Major General Siwach added.

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