India-China dispute live updates: Chinese defence minister seeks meeting with Rajnath Singh during SCO summit

Saturday night’s operation on the south bank of Pangong Tso has brought into limelight the possible role of ‘Establishment 22’, a secret force also known as the Special Frontier Force (SFF) under the administrative control of the Cabinet secretariat and the PMO. Senior Army officials acknowledged the presence of an SFF unit in eastern Ladakh but its interaction with the Army is minimal. Raised towards the end of the 1962 war, SFF’s commandos are drawn from Tibetan refugees settled in India. They were initially trained by the Intelligence Bureau, RAW and CIA for covert operations behind enemy lines. In the first few decades after it was raised, the force was used to keep an eye on Chinese plans to deploy nuclear warheads.

The Army has further strengthened its positions in eastern Ladakh, as well as in other sectors right till Arunachal Pradesh, with an angry China pushing hard for Indian troops to vacate the heights they proactively occupied in the Pangong Tso-Chushul area over the weekend. The military consolidation includes occupying the heights over the ‘Finger-2 and 3’ (mountainous spurs) on the north bank of Pangong Tso to prevent any aggressive action by Chinese soldiers, who have refused to withdraw eastwards from the 8-km stretch they have occupied from ‘Finger-4’ to ‘Finger-8’ since early May.