On Monday morning, the army put out an official statement stating that it had ‘thwarted Chinese intentions to alter the ground situation’. Social media posts on Twitter seemed to indicate the involvement of a covert Indian paramilitary unit, the Special Frontier Force (SFF), in the operation south of Pangong Tso. The Special Frontier Force (SFF) operates under the Directorate General of Security (DGS), a wing of India’s external intelligence agency R AW. The DGS, in fact, predates it and was set up in 1962 after the India-China border war. The unit, also known as Establishment 22 and ‘Vikas’ is officered by the Indian army and recruits its personnel from among the Tibetan diaspora settled in India. Its personnel has participated in India’s various wars, from 1971 to the 1999 Kargil War.
