A day after India said that China made fresh “provocative” military movements in Ladakh near Pangong, intelligence inputs provided to the GoI, suggest that about 1,000 square kilometres of area in Ladakh along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) is now under Chinese control.
Quoting a senior government official, a report by a Delhi based newspaper The Hindu, said that from Depsang Plains to Chushul there had been a systematic mobilisation by the Chinese troops along the undefined LAC.
In Depsang Plains, from patrolling point 10-13, the scale of Chinese control of India’s perception of the LAC stood at about 900 square kilometer, the official revealed.
About 20 square kilometre in Galwan Valley and 12 square kilometre in Hot Springs area is said to be under Chinese occupation, the report quoted official as having said.
In Pangong Tso, the area under Chinese control is 65 square kilometre, whereas in Chushul it is 20 square kilometre, the official added.
The standoff at the China border continues even after several rounds of diplomatic and military level talks.
A partial disengagement commenced after Special Representatives (SRs) Ajit Doval and Wang Yi, tasked to hammer out a solution to the boundary dispute, spoke on July 5.
However, as per the agreement, Indian troops also moved back from their existing positions leading to creation of buffer zones at all the disputed sites.
Chinese forces, according to the report, are occupying a considerable area from Finger 4 to 8 near Pangong Tso (lake). The distance between Finger 4-8, the mountainous spurs abutting the lake, is about eight kilometre.
The stretch was patrolled both by India and China till May and India considers it to form part of its perception of the LAC.
China has been amassing troops and fortifying its presence along the LAC since April-May.
In June 2020, India lost its 20 armed personnel in the Galwan valley in violent clashes with China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops.
Earlier China, in a yet another move, demanded India to withdraw its armed forces personnel from China-India border in order to avoid escalation of tensions.
The move came after India said that fresh “provocative” military movements were made by Chinese army.
China later reportedly built a surface-to-air missile near a lake, which is a part of the Kailash-Mansarovar.
On Monday Indian army informed that Chinese troops “carried out provocative military movements to change the status quo” near Pangong Tso lake in Ladakh, on Saturday night and they were blocked by the Indian armed forces personnel manning the area, the government said.
A Brigade Commander level Flag Meeting was later held at Chushul to resolve the issues, as per the Government of India situation update.
The major flare-up, according to the reports, took place on the south bank of the Pangong Tso, which is of huge significance as no clashes have been reported here earlier.
The statement added that Indian Army is committed to maintaining peace and tranquillity through dialogue, but is also equally determined to protect its territorial integrity.
In Ladakh China has established high speed connectivity, including the setting up of 5G network near Demchok and fresh constructions at the Pangong Lake.
As New Delhi claims that both India and China will “continue to sincerely work towards complete disengagement” of armed forces personnel, talks aimed at resolving the military standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, has so far yielded no results.
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.
Free Press Kashmir is now on Telegram. Click here to Join.
