The Forward Policy and ‘Operation ONKAR’ continues....

‘Operation ONKAR’ was originally conceived by the Ministry of

External Affairs (MEA) in Delhi as a means of establishing the Indian

claim to the McMahon Line and the Indian interpretation of the

international Ladakh-Tibet and Ladakh-Sinkiang borders. The North￾East Frontier Agency (NEFA) was actually administered by the MEA

through the officers of the erstwhile Indian Frontier Administrative Service (IFAS) and the units of the Assam Rifles which were deployed in NEFA.

These ‘Op ONKAR’ deployments were in accordance with the

recommendations of the Himmatsinghji Committee, which has already

been mentioned. In NEFA, as part of Op ONKAR, Assam Rifles posts

were to be established from Khinzemane in the Tawang sector in the

west, eastwards to the India-Tibet-Burma tri-junction. Theoretically, in

the north-east (or the eastern sector of the Sino-Indian frontier) the

Indian Army’s role in Op ONKAR was to assist the Assam Rifles in

setting up these forward posts.

In Ladakh, it became operational when

the Army was inducted into Ladakh in April 1960, with initially just a

brigade HQ and two battalions of local militia, later joined by a regular

infantry battalion in April 1961. Orders to HQ Western Command from Army HQ regarding the method of implementation of this policy have

already been given earlier. 114 Infantry Brigade was then tasked as under:

l 14 J&K Militia to look after the area north of the Galwan River.

l 1/8 G.R. to hold the area between the Galwan river and Chushul.

l 7 J&K Militia to hold the area south of Chushul down to the tri￾junction of the international border with two Indian states, i.e., the

Tibet-J&K (Ladakh)-Himachal Pradesh tri-junction.

To be continued...