Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, May 2: Taking hard stand, India has asked China to cease all kind of construction activities in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), which was legally and, as per unanimous Parliament resolution of 1994, an integral part of India and was being illegally held by Pakistan.
This was stated in the Lok Sabha today by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar in response to volley of questions on the situation along Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan and Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China moved by Sushmita Dev and others during the Question Hour.
Asserting that the Central Government was fully seized of the matter pertaining to Chinese activities in PoK, Parrikar said the Government has strongly conveyed its concerns to China about their activities.
“We have asked China to cease all such activities in PoK,” he said, adding the Government has seen such reports and conveyed its concerns to China.
There had been reports with both Centre and State Governments through security and intelligence agencies that Chinese agencies were busy in construction of Karakoram National Highway running through PoK and some power projects there. In view of these constructions, Chinese Army officials also visit these projects sometime to monitor them and ensure protection of their workers.
The Indian Government has repeatedly taken up the matter with Pakistan also and cautioned it to refrain from construction work.
However, Parrikar told the Parliament that there have been no instances of incursions by the Chinese troops into the Indian territory.
“There is no commonly delineated Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China. There are areas along the border including areas in Ladakh where India and China have differing perception of LAC. Due to both sides undertaking patrolling up to their perception of the LAC, transgressions do occur,” he said.
The Defence Minister said the Government regularly takes up any transgression along LAC with the Chinese side through established mechanisms including flag meetings, Border Personnel meetings, meetings of Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs and diplomatic channels.
“The issues are resolved mutually as per established norms between the two countries,” he said.
Sources said the hard stand taken by the Defence Ministry on Chinese construction activities in PoK clearly indicated that the Government was not going to take it easy.
Replying to questions on infiltration attempts along Pakistan borders in Jammu and Kashmir, Parrikar said the issues related to abetting infiltration along India-Pakistan border are taken up with Pakistan military authorities at the appropriate level through the established mechanism of flag meetings and weekly talks between the Directorate Generals of Military Operations of both the countries.
“The Government is fully seized of the security needs of the country. Necessary steps, as required, are taken to ensure that the national security concerns are adequately addressed through capability and infrastructural development,” he added and said “this was continuous process, which is followed regularly after any kind of infiltration attempt is observed along Indo-Pak borders.
Parrikar disclosed in the Lok Sabha that during first quarter of this year, the militants had made 24 infiltration attempts along LoC in Jammu and Kashmir. Out of them, 18 attempts were successful.
Last year, he said, there had been 118 infiltration attempts by the militants in Jammu and Kashmir but only 33 of them were successful as troops had foiled rest of the bids.
Replying to another question in Lok Sabha raised by Harish Meena and others, the Defence Minister said the interaction with Pakistan’s Joint Investigating Team (JIT) on Pathankot attack was held in accordance with Terms of Reference mutually agreed on the basis of reciprocity and extant legal provisions.
“The Pakistan JIT was informed that a team of NIA officials would like to visit Pakistan to carry forward the investigations in Pathankot airbase attack,” he said but added that it didn’t seem feasible to indicate any time line at this stage for completion of investigations in the case.
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