An Indian military investigation has been opened following disclosure that a soldier at a base near China had obtained strategic documents on troop deployments and high-level strategy. A corporal at the base had obtained access to computer data and had 100 pages of computer printouts of strategic value, a military officer told AFP Aug. 4. "It seems [the corporal] last year passed on copious data on missile locations, deployment of infantry battalions at China's borders, weapons technology upgrades and classified minutes of commander conferences," the officer said. Some of the documents were stolen and passed to Pakistan, which is a close ally of China. The thefts took place during two months last year. "We are in the process of ascertaining what we have lost but from the surface it appears there has been a serious breach [of national security]," the officer said.
Understatement of the year.
The documents were taken from a "war room" at the Tezpur base in northeastern India and were likely passed to Pakistan and then China. The base is designed to counter three Chinese military airfields in Tibet. The spy case follows the break-in of an Indian naval facility two weeks ago in New Delhi in which unidentified attackers penetrated a fortified defense facility and obtained several computer hard disks containing years of defense research work. India and China went to war in 1962 over a border dispute that remains unresolved.