May 20, 2020: A considerable capability of India to patrol up to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) backed with a drastically increasing confident Chinese posture is bringing new tensions along the Indo-China border, said former senior Indian officials.
India and China have deployed additional troops of armed forces to their border near Tiber following a new conflict, despite both countries insisting that the diplomatic channels will remain open.
Indian and Chinese troops have been involved in such dispute and as many as five incidents in recent weeks at the undefined line of Actual Control on Monday, Chinese State Media said the people’s Liberation Arms (Chinese Armed Force) was “tightening control” in one of the conflicted areas in Galwan Valley in the western Ladakh, earlier it accused India for “unilaterally” changing the status or posture of que by “illegal construction”. A constructive building has also been reported in Demchok in Leh district of Ladakh by India.
Separately, troops from both sides were involved in fisticuffs that led to injuries following standoff incidents on May 5 near the Pangong Tso lake in Eastern Ladakh and on May 9 in Naku La in North Sikkim. Army Chief General Manoj Naravane said on May 14 the two incidents were not related and there had been “aggressive behaviour and minor injuries on both sides”. Both sides had since disengaged at these two spots.
Unnamed sources quoted in the South China Morning Post on Sunday said armed forces reinforcements and defence had been placed in more parts of Ladakh, part of the Kashmir region which has been disputed by India, Pakistan and China since 1947. The report said the Galwan Valley had also emerged as a flashpoint after Chinese troops set tents next to a river and started illegal construction activity.
Other unnamed sources mentioned by The Indian Express on Wednesday confirmed that the Chinese have brought more boats to the lake in Ladakh, as they were using three boats. The Indian Army also has a similar account of boats to patrol around 45-km long western part of the Lake in the control of India.
In New Delhi Defense Headquarter, Army Officers, however, confirmed that the conflict incidents in Pangong Tso are “usual LAC activities witnessed during the summer months” also some “new armed force units were inducted” at this time and “functioning familiarisation and occupation of winter-vacated posts” take place. They regarded these incidents “regional” in nature due to “two perceptions of the Line of Actual Control from India and China”.
