China Helped Pakistan With 'Live Inputs', Army Says
Lt Gen. Rahul R. Singh reveals Beijing used four-day conflict as ‘live lab’, backing Islamabad and Turkey in multi-front challenge to India.
New Delhi: China gave Pakistan "live inputs" on key Indian positions during Operation Sindoor in May, Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen. Rahul R. Singh said on Friday. China used the four-day conflict like a “live lab” to test weapon systems and was providing all possible support to Islamabad, in line with the ancient military strategy of killing the adversary with a “borrowed knife”, he said.
The senior military officer said while Pakistan was the “front face”, with China extending all possible support to its all-weather ally, Turkeiy was playing a major role by supplying military hardware to Islamabad. India was actually dealing with at least three adversaries, Lt Gen. Singh said.
"When the DGMO (director general of military operations) level talks were going on, Pakistan ... said that we know that your such and such important vector is primed and it is ready for action ... he was getting live inputs from China," he said at a seminar, ‘New Age Military Technologies’ organised by the industry chamber Ficci.
Lt Gen. Singh did not elaborate on how India knew about the live inputs from China, Reuters reported.
The Deputy Chief of Army Staff highlighted China's ancient military strategy of “36 stratagems” and killing the adversary with a “borrowed knife” to buttress the point that Beijing extended all possible support to Islamabad to cause pain to India.
Lt Gen. Singh, who looks after the Army's capability development and sustenance vertical, said Beijing's support to Islamabad was not surprising as 81 per cent of the military hardware used by the Pakistani armed forces were from China.
“He (China) would rather use the neighbour (Pakistan) to cause pain (to India) than getting involved in a mudslinging match on the northern border,” Lt Gen. Singh said.
He said Turkey also played an important role in providing support to Pakistan.
“We saw numerous drones coming and landing in the face of war, during the war, along with the individuals who are there,” he said.
Lt Gen. Singh underlined the need for India to learn its lessons from the conflict.
“The next important lesson is the importance of C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) and civil-military fusion. There is a lot to be done as far as this domain is concerned,” he said.
The Deputy Chief of Army Staff said the “strategic messaging” by the Indian leadership was unambiguous, adding that the planning and selection of targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) was based on a lot of data.
