In the first intrusion by air this year, Chinese helicopters came a couple of kilometers inside India in Uttarakhand on April 30 and as recent as on June 13, and returned after hovering over Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) posts.
India and China have nearly 450 km of line of Actual Control(lAC) in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and this part known as central sector is generally peaceful unlike western sector (ladakh) and eastern sector (Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim).While IAF said here on Wednesday it had no information about intrusion into Uttarakhand, reports said a Chinese helicopter came couple of kilometers inside India in the higher reaches of Joshimath on June 13.
The intrusion took place at about 8.45 am and the helicopter returned after hovering for about ten minutes over an ITBP post. The para-military is deployed there to guard the lAC. Similar incident was reported on April 30 in the same sector and the Chinese helicopter crossed the lAC and came inside India, they said. These two intrusions have caused concern in the security establishment as the central sector is generally peaceful where air intrusions and incursions by the Chinese patrols are very rare.
The ladakh sector is about 1,500 km long while the two countries share the dispute boundary of more than 2,000 km in the eastern sector. These sectors see incursions by the Chinese Army leading to face-offs with the Indian Army and ITBP like the one which took place in Depsang Valley, ladakh last year. The stand-off lasted for more than 20 days before intervention at the highest political and diplomatic levels diffused the situation.
ladakh sector also witnessed couple of air intrusions last year when Chinese helicopters came into Chumar valley leading to tension. The Chinese patrol also took away cameras installed by the Indian Army to monitor activity on the lAC and returned the machine after strong protest by local Indian commanders.