‘PLA unlikely to risk an all-out offensive’

The assessment as of now is that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is “unlikely to risk an all-out offensive” despite all its muscle-flexing by amassing troops and heavy weaponry along the unresolved Line of Actual Control (LAC), especially in the strategically located Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO)-Depsang area, sources said.

With India too deploying thousands of additional troops backed by tanks, infantry combat vehicles and howitzers in the region, and IAF fighters like Sukhoi-30 MKIs and MiG-29s regularly patrolling the skies, “criticalities in full operational preparedness” that existed before have been plugged. “We are well-poised in the forward areas with a strong military posture, with more troops and weaponry positioned in the depth areas,” a source said.

But face-offs and clashes cannot be ruled out due to tensions running high on the ground, especially in the Pangong Tso and GalwanValley regions, though the rival troops are maintaining “stand-off distances” from each other.