NEW DELHI: The Army has conducted another 'airborne insertion and rapid response' exercise in the strategically-sensitive Siliguri Corridor, the narrow strip of land that connects the northeast with the rest of India, amidst the ongoing 22-month-long military confrontation with China in eastern Ladakh.
Around 600 paratroopers of the Army's airborne rapid response teams were air-dropped from IAF aircraft near the Siliguri Corridor for the exercise on Thursday and Friday, which coincided with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi's visit to New Delhi, in an unmistakable signal along the northern borders.
During his meetings with external affairs minister S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval here, Wang was also clearly told that China would have to complete the troop disengagement process at the remaining friction points in eastern Ladakh if it wanted restoration of normalcy in the overall bilateral ties.
"The exercise, in which the paratroopers were airlifted from various airbases, involved advanced free-fall techniques, insertion, surveillance, targeting, and seizing of key objectives behind enemy lines," a senior Army officer said.
The Army Special Forces had conducted a similar exercise at the Siliguri Corridor on March 4, while General M M Naravane had separately reviewed the war game of a strike corps re-oriented to the China front.
The Mathura-based 1 Strike Corps, which has around 70,000 soldiers and heavy weaponry, has been "rebalanced" to the LAC with China as the primary front from its earlier role on the western front with Pakistan, as was earlier reported by TOI.
