As the face-off between the armies of China and India entered the third week on Monday, Chinese troops have further ramped up their presence by erecting one more tent. The Chinese also brought in three truckloads of supplies to replenish 50-odd troops at the stand-off site in Depsang Valley, ladakh. A Chinese Army patrol of 50 soldiers intruded 19 kms into the Indian territory on April 15 and set up at least four tents then.
The latest reports that the Chinese have put up another tent despite Indian protests, will come as a major source of worry and embarrassment for the Government, which has so far tried to play down the incursion and suppress any information about it.
Even on Tuesday, officials of the Defence Ministry and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) refused to confirm the news. ITBP DG Ajay Chadda said: "We do not have such a report. We are not in a position to confirm it as we do not have aerial surveillance capabilities."
ITBP sources said the Army would be in a position to confirm as they operate the UAVs and they may have satellite imageries of the area. The Army officials also said they were not in a position to confirm the news.
According to a detailed report from the site of the incursion, the additional tent came up after two flag meetings between the local commanders of the two armies failed to achieve a breakthrough.
A PTI report from leh said that the Chinese have hoisted a banner in English outside their camp stating "You are in Chinese side." The Chinese soldiers are maintaining vigil along with two Molosser dogs, considered best for keeping a watch in these high-altitude areas. Also, their officers
were armed with Chinese Makarov pistols and the soldiers carried a variant of AK series of assault rifles.
However, the Indian and Chinese armies were not carrying out aggressive patrolling.
The report said the ITBP had managed to push intruding Chinese troops back by at least nine km before they settled down at the present location, which is nearly 19 km inside Indian territory in the Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) at an altitude of 17,000 feet.
Responding to the Chinese banner drill, the ITBP also immediately erected flags with a message in Mandarin and English reminding the Chinese troops of "peace and tranquility agreement" and asking them to return to their side.
The Indian Government had ordered its security forces to maintain the status quo at the face-off position and not prevent Chinese trucks from coming to their posts to supply essentials to their troops.
The Indian troops were also asked to refrain from engaging in any verbal communication with the Chinese, officials said here on Monday.
They added that the Indian security forces will maintain the status quo but if the Chinese increase their troop strength then the Army will have to take adequate action to protect its strategic interest.
They also said the Indian troops now deployed in the face-off position were adequately equipped to meet any challenge.
China insists that India should dismantle bunkers and other infrastructure in Depsgang Valley and Daulat Beg Oldie besides refraining from aggressive patrolling before withdrawing. These conditions were conveyed to India during the two flag meetings and New Delhi denied these claims and asked the Chinese to go back to their original position across the line of Actual Control (lAC).
Officials said the Government was aware of these developments and the China Study Group, given the responsibility of resolving the face-off, was constantly in touch with all the stake holders including the Ministries of Defence, External Affairs and Home.
The Group comprises secretaries of Defence, Home, External Affairs and head of Intelligence Bureau and Research and Analysis Wing.
Meanwhile, the face-off will figure prominently in the Unified Commanders' Conference here on Tuesday. Defence Minister AK Antony will preside over the annual conference and will take stock of the situation in ladakh in the wake of the incident.
In a related event, Defence Secretary Shashikant Sharma and senior Army officers will give the latest details about the face-off to the Parliament Standing Committee on Defence on Tuesday.
The members were not satisfied by sketchy details provided by the Government to the panel on Friday and asked the officials to come back to them on Tuesday with information like how the Chinese managed to intrude unchecked and steps taken to resolve the stand-off.