Srinagar: A strategically located plateau called Green Top has become one of the main contentious spots in the process of disengagement between armies of India and China at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, amidst heightened tensions between the two countries.
According to a news report published in News18, a Delhi based media organization, during the marathon talks held at the Chinese base of Moldo on Sunday, China’s People’s Liberation Army negotiators declined to commit on removing troops from the tactically-significant location near Pangong.
The Green Top, according to the report, is a bush-covered plateau perched at over 5,000 metres on a ridge stretching out from Pangong’s north shore, and is one of a handful of locations on which PLA and Indian Army negotiators remain deadlocked despite five rounds of high-level talks.
On the other side, the government of India is hoping to involve both the Ministry of External Affairs and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, so that the dispute at Green Top, Patrol Point 17A near Gogra, and Patrol Point 13 near the Depsang Plains, reaches to an end.
Earlier in the week, the spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry of China, Wang Wenbin had said: “most of the bases deployed on the front have completed the evacuation process and the ground conditions are recovering”.
In his statement last week, Wenbin had also acknowledged the existence of “remaining outstanding issues”.
The report quoting officials said that they are doubtful on PLA’s willingness to withdraw from all territories it “occupied” in April this year.
“The talks have achieved their immediate intent, which was to avoid violence,” a senior intelligence official told News18. “The fact that China is still occupying territory it grabbed in April may not be a deal-breaker, but it certainly undermines trust”.
Citing government sources, the report added that PLA commanders are seeking to hold on to Green Top because it offers a clear line of observation over Dhan Singh Post, the main logistics hub for Indian troop movements around Pangong Lake.
In this regard, an official familiar with the talks between the two countries told the news website: “their argument is that India has also violated the status-quo in the Pangong area,” he said, adding that the claim has no basis, because all the works India has undertaken are clearly on their own side of the LAC.
From Green Top, connected by road to PLA bases near Sirijap, the PLA is able to observe Indian Army patrols headed out eastwards towards the LAC, thus enabling rapid interdiction.
The report quoted a government official saying that force levels have thinned significantly all the way to Finger 5 but the PLA has continued to maintain its presence at Green Top.
In a recent move India, the country’s army has made heavy deployment and tank regiments in the area to counter any misadventure by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), in Ladakh. This was done in response to China’s deployment of more than 17,000 troops and armoured vehicles opposite Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) and Depsang plains in Ladakh, a news report by a Delhi based news agency ANI said.
“We have done a very heavy deployment of troops and tanks in the DBO and Depsang plains area including the T-90 regiments which are part of an armoured division,” the report quoted government sources as saying.
Quoting sources, the report said that deployments have been made from the Patrolling Point 1 near the Karakoram Pass (PP-3) to the Depsang plains where the Chinese have amassed more than 17,000 troops since April-May time frame and have been blocking Indian patrols from PP-10 to PP-13.
The sources close to the news agency added that armoured deployment from India is such that the Chinese would find it difficult to operate there, in case, they try out any misadventure, they said.
“Before the Chinese started build-up opposite the DBO and Depsang, the entire area was looked after by a mountain brigade and an armoured brigade but today more than 15,000 troops and several tank regiments have been moved there both by road and by air to tackle the threat from China,” they added.
The report said that one of the major intentions of the Chinese in this area has been to build a road from its TWD battalion headquarters opposite the DBO sector to the Karakoram pass area and connect the battalion there.
The source added that connectivity plan, which has been foiled in the past, will allow the two Chinese units to reach other in a matter of a couple of hours against the 15-hour drive through the Highway G219 in their territory.
A small bridge was put up by the Chinese inside Indian territory on a nala (drain) near PP-7 and PP-8 but it was broken by Indian soldiers a few years ago, sources said.
At present, India and China are engaged in a dialogue focusing on disengagement from Finger area and other friction points but Chinese build up along the LAC in Depsang plains and DBO area has not yet been taken up in the military talks. However, Chinese had earlier agreed for complete disengagement at Galwan valley, PP-15, Hot Springs and Gogra along with Finger area near Pangong Tso lake.
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