China

Pakistan sends 20,000 soldiers to Gilgit-Baltistan, China reviving Al Badr: Report

‘Chinese officials have undertaken meetings with cadres of the Al Badr’

Development comes a month after DGP indicated that Al Badr is being revived

Srinagar: Reports on Wednesday suggested that Pakistan has moved almost 20,000 additional soldiers to LoC to match Chinese deployments on the LAC in the east, as Chinese officials are in touch with militants from Al Badr outfit.

According to a report by Economic Times, the level of troops Pakistan has deployed is more than what it did after the Balakot air strikes. Pakistani radars are believed to be fully activated all along the region too.

The report added that efforts to build up on the Pakistan and China borders are “being made to incite militancy” in Kashmir.

According to the report by Senior Journalist Manu Pubby, Chinese officials have undertaken a ‘series of meetings with cadres of the Al Badr’, a Pakistan-based militant group, followed by amassing of troops in Gilgit-Baltistan, the area that adjoins Ladakh on the north.

The development comes a month after Director General of Police J&K Dilbag Singh indicated that militant outfit Al Badr is being revived for operations to incite violence in J&K amid India-China standoff in Ladakh.

“The assessment is that China may provide support to revive the organisation. This is among the signs we have received that indicate Pakistan and China are collaborating on the ground,” Economic Times reported.

The report added that India has been keeping an eye on airbases in Pakistan administered Kashmir after a Chinese refueller aircraft landed in Skardu earlier this week.

Indian and Chinese soldiers continue to be eyeball to eyeball at the Line of Actual Control at Galwan Valley, Hot Springs, Depsang Plains and Pangong Tso in Ladakh and at Naku La in North Sikkim.

And now China has reportedly started creating trouble for Indian patrols in the Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) area between patrolling points 10 and 13 and the Demchok region in eastern Ladakh.

The armies of India and China are locked in a tense standoff in eastern Ladakh, where China has reportedly occupied 60 sq. kilometres of territory claimed by India.

A Chinese diplomat reacting to the standoff in Ladakh has said that the move is linked to the Indian government’s unilateral decision to scrap Article 370 in August last year.

The move changed the laws that prohibited Indians from buying land in Kashmir, and made the constitution of Jammu and Kashmir defunct, triggering fears of demographic change in the Muslim majority region of Kashmir.

When India scrapped Jammu and Kashmir’s special status on August 5 last year, the Chinese foreign ministry had issued two statements criticising the development, including one that focused on the splitting of the state into union territories.

This statement, while urging India to be “cautious” on the border issue and to avoid “actions that further complicate the border issue”, said: “China has always opposed India’s inclusion of Chinese territory in India’s administrative jurisdiction in the western part of the Sino-Indian border.” This was a reference to the area in Ladakh that New Delhi claims but is controlled by Beijing.

 

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