Ferozepore, May 17
India and Pakistan have both reportedly moved ballistic missiles and troops closer to the border, particularly in the Punjab and Rajasthan sectors. The reports of deployment came after the Chief of Army Staff, General S. Padmanabhan, reacted to the Jammu massacre, saying that “time for action has come”.
Adopting an aggressive strategy, Pakistan has strengthened its defences along the 4 Lahore sector along the Punjab border by reconstructing two more defence lines.
As part of these crucial preparations, vice-chief of army staff of Pakistan, Gen Muhammad Yusaf Khan, visited the border areas in Bahawalpur last evening. He has ordered a maximum number of air force aircraft to be on alert.
As per details from intelligence sources, he inspected the military exercise and told troops: “If the enemy resorts to aggression against Pakistan it will find our army ready to give a matching response to foil its nefarious designs”.
The sources said Pakistan had also moved Haft missiles closer to the border. Although the exact field locations of these missiles was yet to be determined, it was believed that they had been deployed at a distance of 50 to 100 km inside Pakistani territory.
The Haft-1 missile had an estimated range of 75 to 100 km while the Haft-2 had a reach of around 250 km if tipped with the 500 kg warhead. The range could be extended to 450 km by reducing the load of the warhead to 300 kg.
Apart from these medium-range missiles, short-range missiles had also been moved closer. The anti-tank Bakhtar Shikan missile with a range of 3000 yards, longer-range 122 mm Howitzer guns and 130 mm Rani guns had also been deployed. These missiles could easily target Amritsar and Ferozepore.
With the Indian Army having established a strategic superiority in the Punjab sector in the 1965 and 1971 wars, the Pakistan army had adopted a more aggressive defence strategy to defend the Punjab sector by beefing up the defences with two or more defence lines in addition to the BRB canal that provided a natural line of defence.
The Pakistan army had started laying fresh land mines and trenches had been dug along the entire border. It had also constructed huge embankments so that in case of heavy ground battle, it could even face air attacks. Anti-tank missiles had been installed at these embankments.
A large quantity of arms and ammunition had also been moved to zero line. Laser range
finders
had been installed to keep a vigil on the movement of Indian troops. Rangers had been provided with 12 km range machine guns to counter the ground movement of the Indian Army.Alternative arrangements had been made to provide regular communication facilities to the Rangers as well as the infantry and artillery divisions in case the routine system got destroyed. Four alternative systems had been developed in addition to the routine artillery locating radars that had a range of 24 km.
Expecting a limited war in the Kashmir valley, the Pakistan army had also moved four additional divisions of troops to be deployed in the areas opposite the Kargil-Siachen, Poonch and Jammu sectors. Snow and high altitude warfare commandos of Gilgit scouts and the Northern Light Infantry divisions had been deployed opposite Thang, Turtuk, Chorbatla and Dras.
The sources revealed that 1 Corps was posted at Mangla, 2 Corps at Multan, 4 Corps at Lahore, 5 Corps at Karachi, 10 Corps at Rawalpindi, 11 Corps at Peshawar, 12 Corps at Quetta, 30 Corps at Gujranwala and 31 Corps at Bahawalpur.
Senior policy makers were considering the possibility of moving 11 Corps from Peshawar to the Ferozepore sector which they felt was the weakest point. This corps was ranked the best in Pakistan. Pakistan was also seriously considering the deployment of its Army Reserve South, (ARS) one of its key strike corps in the Ferozepore sector.
Indian defence planners were closely watching the movements of these corps. It was believed that if the ARS crossed the Indus from south it would possibly attack form the Rann of Kutch area.
