Indian government has for the first time sanctioned Border Intelligence Posts or BIPs at the Indo-China border to keep an eye on Beijing’s activities including its military and weapons buildup across the Line of Actual Control (LAC), as well as regular transgression and incursion attempts to change the status quo, people familiar with the development said on Monday.
The BIPs will exclusively have intelligence officials deployed to gather and develop inputs from the LAC in collaboration with the troops of Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), agencies such as National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), etc, regarding any unusual activity of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
“Each BIP, which will be created along with the Border outposts (BOPs) of ITBP, would have 4-5 intelligence officers with specific duties. They will submit reports to the government regarding any unusual activity,” said a top official, who didn’t want to be named.
Currently there are over 180 BOPs of ITBP at the Indo-China border from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh. The government had, earlier this year, also sanctioned 47 additional border outposts and 12 staging camps of the border guarding force – also known as “Himveers” – along the LAC for which 9,400 personnel (or seven battalions) have already been approved.
