With no solution in sight, the Army has put on alert 15 battalions deployed in eastern ladakh
As the stand-off between India and China on the line of Actual Control (lAC) in Chumar, ladakh continued, Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag cancelled his three-day visit to Bhutan starting Monday.
He is getting daily updates from Director General Military Operations (DGMO) and Northern Command chief since the two Armies came to face to face on September 12 when Indian troops stopped Chinese from building a road inside their territory. The Army Chief had also briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi mid-last week about the situation there after the two flag meetings on Monday and Wednesday last failed to resolve the issue.
The logjam in Tibley, known in Army parlance as 30R post, continued with more than 1,000 Chinese and 1,500 Indian troops engaged in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation. The face-off was spread over an arc of three km after the Chinese tried to intrude at various points on the lAC in that sector, officials said here on Monday.
With no solution in sight in the near future, the Army has put on alert 15 battalions deployed in eastern ladakh comprising Chumar and Demchok along with some companies of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).
There is a face-off in Demchok also for the last 14 days between the civilians of two sides after the Chinese shepherds pitched tents a pasture there to protest against construction of a canal on the Indian side. Meanwhile, the Chinese military on Monday for the first time commented in Beijing on the recent border incidents, saying there are “differing perceptions” of the lAC, but the two sides can resolve boundary issues through dialogue.
“We have noted the relevant media reports,” the office of the spokesman of China’s Ministry of National Defence said in response to a query from PTI here about the standoff in Chumar.
“The China-India boundary dispute is an issue left over from history. The boundary between the two countries has not been demarcated till now and there are differing perceptions with regards to the lAC,” military said in its first comments on the incident which cast a shadow over President Xi Jinping’s high-profile visit to India.
“The border troops of China have always strictly observed the relevant agreements signed between the two countries. The two sides can properly resolve issues arising in the border areas through dialogue and consultations,” it said.