Face-off between Chinese, Indian troops in Sikkim after PLA 'transgression'

NEW DELHI: Indian and Chinese soldiers are locked in a tense face-off along the border in Sikkim after the latter intruded into Indian territory, destroyed two bunkers and stopped a batch of pilgrims headed for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.

Sources said the People's Liberation Army troops had "transgressed" into Indian territory in the Doka La region at the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction and destroyed two Indian Army bunkers in Lalten area around 10 days ago.

"There was some jostling and a scuffle between the rival troops. Our soldiers formed a human wall to deny the PLA troops from making further inroads," said a source. A flag meeting was subsequently held between senior Army officers from the two sides but the face-off could not be defused, with the rival troops maintaining their positions.

The Army, on being contacted by TOI, refused to say anything about the incident. The external affairs ministry, on its part, had last week raised with China its refusal to allow entry to around 50 pilgrims headed for Kailash Mansarovar in Tibet through the Nathu La in Sikkim.

The Indian Army twice asked for a flag meeting with PLA to defuse the tension, with China finally agreeing to a meeting on June 20. It was then that China said it would not allow Indian pilgrims to cross over for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra. The pilgrims subsequently returned to Gangtok after waiting till June 23.

Though there is no cross-border firing like along the 778-km Line of Control with Pakistan, border transgressions and face-offs between Indian and Chinese troops occur almost on a daily basis at different stretches along the 4,057-km Line of Actual Control, with eastern Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh in particular being major flashpoints.

Such troop confrontations are relatively rare in Sikkim, even though China also claims the "finger area" in the northernmost part of the state. Incidentally, Chinese troops had also destroyed a few makeshift bunkers of the Indian Army in the Doka La region in November 2007.

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Over the last couple of years, the Indian Army has built many new bunkers and upgraded older ones along the border in Sikkim to augment its defences against the PLA, which has stepped up its activities near the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction.

India and China, however, have slowly but steadily established several bilateral military confidence-building measures over the years, though the long-pending proposed hotline between their top military commanders is yet to take concrete shape.

The CBMs range from border personnel meeting (BPM) points at at Daulat Beg Oldi and Chushul (Ladakh), Nathu La (Sikkim), Bum La and Kibithu (Arunachal) to the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA) inked in October 2013, which is geared towards ensuring troop face-offs are effectively defused at the local level itself.

But, as earlier reported by TOI, the BDCA is yet to become fully operational on the ground to ensure troop face-offs are effectively diffused soon.

With both sides resorting to aggressive patrolling to lay claims to disputed areas, rival troops also continue to tail each other's patrols, which was specifically prohibited by the BDCA.



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