New Delhi, March 26: Indian Army conducted airborne exercise involving 600 paratroopers of the elite Airborne Rapid Response teams in the sensitive Siliguri corridor on March 24 and 25, sources said on Saturday. Around 600 paratroopers of the Indian Army’s Airborne Rapid Response teams carried out large scale drops near the Siliguri corridor. “The Exercise has been carried out after being airlifted from various airbases. It involved advanced free-fall techniques; insertion, surveillance and targeting practice and seizing of key objectives by going behind enemy lines,” security sources said.
The Siliguri Corridor, also known as Chicken’s Neck, is a strategically important narrow stretch of land bordering Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. The Indian Army had also conducted a similar exercise at on March 4 wherein the airborne forces rehearsed their aerial insertion capability and rapid response at the Siliguri Corridor. In that exercise, the combat freefallers of the Special Forces inserted from an altitude of 20,000 feet, alongwith logistic supply loads on precision guided platforms. The freefallers, after landing at a location in the Siliguri Corridor, established surveillance positions to guide accurate fire onto select enemy targets. Indian Army, post the 2017 Doklam standoff, resorted to step up the security and defence of the geostrategically important Corridor.
UNI
