Faced with Chinese aggression on the Line of Actual Control, the newly formed union territory of Ladakh is ramping up its policing to detect the Chinese presence by purchasing drones, building state of the art surveillance systems and acting as a third line of defence.
While the Army and the ITBP man the LAC demarcating the India-China border, behind these border-guarding forces stands the Ladakh police. After the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir carved out the new union territory of Ladakh, its administration faces the immediate task of ramping up policing for the entire UT, whose international borders are disputed by China.
Though the erstwhile district of Ladakh has a sanctioned strength of 2,000 police personnel, the actual strength on the ground is just around 1,700 police personnel, sources said.
A plan is in the works to build up the Ladakh border police, which would be an arm of the Ladakh police, to focus on internal security threats coming from the border areas. The Ladakh border police won't be deployed on the border. Instead, they will focus on threats emanating from the border areas—tracking suspicious movements and beefing up security within the UT.
The special development fund released by the centre for the development of Ladakh as a union territory will be used to boost the infrastructure of its police force.
There are cases where spies have been caught, and where Chinese movement has been detected in border areas. The police force is not only short on manpower but also on the infrastructure necessary for them to maintain a high level of security within the union territory.
Presently, the Ladakh police have only three police stations and 17 police posts—inadequate against the face of the cross border threat in the area.
“After the creation of the UT, there is focus on building policing infrastructure, training facilities and manpower,” said an official.
In an immediate step, the police plan to purchase drones and to build more listening posts and surveillance infrastructure.
Ladakh also has women police personnel and efforts are on to increase their strength as well, thereby giving opportunities to the local population to participate in law and order duties. It will also generate more employment opportunities for the local youth and make them an active participant in the development of the union territory.
