Along The Burma Border In Arunachal Pradesh: Pangsau Pass To Vijaynagar

Team StratNews
May 26, 2023
2 minutes read

Arunachal Pradesh & Assam: In this ground report, StratNews Global travels along the Burma border in eastern Arunachal Pradesh from Pangsau Pass to Vijaynagar. In the third and last in our series, ‘East Of The Northeast’, we fly on board the lifeline provided by the Chinooks of the Indian Air Force’s Mighty Talons 124 Helicopter Unit to one of the eastern most inhabited areas and Advanced Landing Grounds of the country. En route and on location, Lt Gen P.C. Nair, Director General, Assam Rifles, Brig Swarn Singh, DIG, 25 Sector and Col Mohit Verma, Commandant, 19 Assam Rifles explain the strategic significance of how India discovered, secured and settled the critical Vijaynagar bowl.

Our team of Amitabh P. Revi and Rohit Pandita travels to Dibrugarh, Lekhapani, Jairampur, Pangsau Pass, Jorhat, Chabua and Vijaynagar, connecting the dots of history to explain the critical importance of these little-known border areas. We document the path-breaking Ledo or Stilwell road, the Pangsau Pass and how NSCN and ULFA insurgents attacked the post there in the run-up to Independence Day in 2022 and re-visit the Vijaynagar Bowl and the history of how two Assam Rifles expeditions, the second led by Brig (later) Major General) A.S.Guraya changed how history and geography are now, and how they fit into India’s ‘Act East’ policy.