Army building defences to protect troops from artillery shells

In a bid to provide all-round protection to the troops in the Kargil-Drass sector, the Indian Army is building strong defences to protect them from being hit by enemy artillery shells and heavy weapon fire at the Line of Control (LoC).

"In order to strengthen our defences on ground and protecting our soldiers from enemy fire, we have built strong defences covered from all the sides, which can keep away enemy fire from our troops," a senior Army officer at one of the forward bases on the Line of Control said.

"The newly built defences are fully covered from both sides with two thick parallel-running stone walls, thick over-head protection which can bear any kind of fire from the enemy," he added.

The idea for building these new types of defences came up after the Army realised that the stone walls at posts facing the enemy directly and at close distances were not effective in providing shelter against the enemy shells fired in the 'air-burst' mode as the splinters were causing damage to the troops, he said.

"Now even artillery shells fired in the air burst mode would prove to be ineffective as our soldiers would be fully covered from all sides," the officer said.

At some posts in the Kargil-Dras region, Indian and Pakistani soldiers are deployed at distances as close as 50 metres.

The new defences, the officer said, have enough space in it for the soldiers to move along the post.

"The length runs over 200 metres covering almost the whole post and the soldiers can move all along it with their weapons and can fire at enemy post facing us," the officer said.

The new defences have various openings from where troops can retaliate to enemy shelling and firing without exposing themselves.

"We have openings from where our troops can fire at different angles and all types of weapons in our inventory and this will give us an edge over the enemy," the officer said.

The newly-built defence is the first of its kind in the region and was built in record time of two months by the respective battalions deployed in the post.

"Various other units are also coming to have a look at the newly-built defence and hopefully, there would be many other such defences built in the area," he said.

Talking about the strengthening of defences along the LoC, 8 Mountain Division commander Major General S Khajuria said, "strengthening of posts and bunkers is a continuous process and it is done by both the sides to improve their position there".

During the summers every year, both sides take the opportunity to upgrade their bunkers to provide protection from enemy fire.