ITBP personnel on the banks of Pangong Tso, in Ladakh

NEW DELHI: As tensions again rose with China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh, the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) Chief SS Deswal was in Ladakh for six days to review the preparedness of his troops and further enhance coordination with the Indian Army formations deployed there.

With over 5,000 ITBP troops stationed in Ladakh, Deswal over the past few days toured almost all major areas on the border from Sub-Sector North to the Sub-sector South in the eastern Ladakh sector.

During the visit, the ITBP chief interacted with his troops who took part in the operations along the LAC to thwart the Chinese attempts of transgression and commended them by awarding them ITBP insignias on the spot, sources told ANI.

Deswal, who was accompanied by his senior administration and operations officers including Inspector General Daljeet Chaudhary and Manoj Singh Rawat, visited several positions of the force from Daulat Beg Oldie to southern parts of the union territory that has several high altitude mountains and shares a long boundary with China, the sources said.

He held meetings with senior army commanders in Ladakh and assured full cooperation and coordination between the two forces responsible for the security of the union territory.

The ITBP chief also motivated his troops to be prepared for any eventuality in their line of duty.

ITBP troops have fought magnificently in the face-offs with the Chinese army ever since these started in eastern Ladakh in the first week of May.

The ITBP troops took on the Chinese troops head-on in the violent face-offs in the Pangong Tso lake and friction points along the eastern Ladakh sector.

The specialized mountain force is deployed on border guarding duties from Karakoram Pass in Ladakh to Jachep La in Arunachal Pradesh covering 3,488 km of Indo-China Border.