Tension escalates in Ladakh
Indian and Chinese troops were engaged in a tense face off yesterday, barely a few hundred metres apart, in a remote Himalayan region where shots were fired for the first time in decades, Indian officials said.
The nuclear-armed neighbours have accused each other of firing in the air during a fresh flare-up in the Ladakh region on Monday, violating long-standing protocols to avoid using firearms along their undemarcated borders.
"The situation is tense," an official in New Delhi said, adding that Indian and Chinese troops were squaring off in close proximity in at least four locations south of the Pangong Tso lake that both lay claim to.
"Both are on their own sides of the LAC," the official said, referring to the Line of Actual Control, the de facto border.
At a forward position near the Rezang La mountain pass, Indian and Chinese troops were only around 200 metres apart, another official in New Delhi said. Both officials declined to be named.
The development comes a day before the foreign ministers of both countries are expected to meet in Moscow on the sidelines of the meeting of the eight-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is in Moscow on a four-day visit to Russia to attend a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
On the sidelines of the SCO meet, he is expected to hold a bilateral meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi today amidst the escalating border row .
His trip to Moscow comes days after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visited the Russian capital to attend a meeting of the defence ministers of the eight-nation SCO of which both India and China are members. He also met with his Chinese counterpart, but apparently, produced little result to ease the tensions.
Several Indian media yesterday reported that the the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has occupied the ridge lines and amassed troops on the north bank of the Pangong Lake, where Fingers 4-8 are located, reports The Hindu.
The Finger Area -- a set of eight cliffs jutting out of the mountain range overlooking the Pangong Lake -- has emerged as the hardest part of the disengagement process with little hope of immediate resolution, officials said.
Indian media reports claimed that China had ingressed about 8 km in the Finger area of the north bank. India has not been able to patrol beyond Finger 4 since the April. Earlier, Indian troops could patrol up to Finger 8.
On Monday, the Indian military said Chinese troops fired in the air after attempting to close in on a forward Indian position. But the China military said it was Indian troops who fired the shots, threatening Chinese border guards during a patrol.
In photographs provided by sources in New Delhi from an area south of Pangong Tso taken on Monday, around two dozen Chinese troops with assault rifles hanging off their backs can be seen holding long poles with a curved blade. Reuters could not independently verify the photographs.
MEETINGS YIELD NO RESULTS
Military commanders and diplomats have held several rounds of talks since July to reduce tension, but have made little progress to thin out forces in the arid, high-altitude region that both nations claim and consider as vital to their security.
The latest uptick in tension around the alpine Pangong lake began late last month when Indian forces mobilised to deter Chinese troops, whose movements suggested they aimed to occupy a hilltop India regards as its territory, Indian officials said.
Each nation has urged the other to restrain forward troops who have been locked in a face-off since April, after India said China intruded deep into its side of the LAC.
Beijing denies the charge.
India and China fought a border war in 1962 and continue to lay claim to thousands of square kilometres of territory stretching from the snow deserts of Ladakh in the west to mountain forests in the east.
Also on Tuesday, five Indian youths who went missing from an eastern border state several days ago have been found in China, after the Indian military contacted its Chinese counterpart, an Indian minister said.
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