Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 13: Displaying aggressiveness with the backing of the Defence Ministry and the Army Headquarters, the Indian Army has strengthened its positions with deployment of more troops and paramilitary Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and seized cameras and other material used by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in construction of watch tower in Burtse area along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), about 500 meters inside the Indian territory in Ladakh sector.
Meanwhile, a Sector Commander level flag meeting between the Indian Army and PLA could take place tomorrow to resolve the standoff in Ladakh sector, which comes after more than a year as complete peace was prevailing between India and China and both the sides had only few days back opened a new Border Meeting Point (BMP) near Daulat Beig Oldie (DBO) sector and had frequent meetings and cultural exchange programmes on different occasions.
Official sources told the Excelsior that situation between India and China at Burtse, where Indian Army had dismantled a watch tower constructed by the PLA yesterday and seized the material including a camera, remained tense with both sides being in eyeball-to-eyeball position and strengthening their presence.
The Indian Army as well as PLA have called more troops and were maintaining their positions in the absence of flag meeting, which, sources said, could take place tomorrow if everything goes well.
“It could be Sector Commander level meeting and we hope the issue will be resolved as the Indian side was ready to return camera and other seized material of the PLA if the Chinese troops return to their original position,” sources said, adding that presently, about 90 PLA soldiers were camping nearly 500 meters inside the Indian territory
The Indian troops followed by the paramilitary ITBP have also equally strengthened their positions but, according to sources, the Indian authorities were hopeful that the situation will not aggravate further and the issues will be resolved in the Sector Commanders’ meeting, which could take place tomorrow.
Sources said the Defence Ministry and the Union Home Ministry were monitoring the situation very closely from New Delhi. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Home Minister Rajnath Singh were in regular touch with Army and ITBP officials respectively.
Northern Army Commander Lt Gen D S Hooda has briefed Army chief Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag about the situation after obtaining detailed reports from General Officer Commanding (GOC) Leh based 14 Corps Lt Gen SK Patyal. The ITBP Commanders have given detailed report on the situation to the Union Home Minister.
Sources said the Indian Army was ready to return the PLA camera and other infrastructure seized by them after demolition of the Chinese Army’s watch tower at Burtse but only after the PLA agreed to retreat from the Indian territory, where they had been camping since yesterday morning.
This is for the first time during incursions by the Chinese Army in Leh that the Indian troops went aggressive and dismantled the watch tower raised by the PLA about 500 meters inside the Indian territory.
Sources said the hut, constructed by the PLA with a solar panel on top, had a camera which recorded the movement of Indian troops. The camera would have given details of every movement of the Indian troops to China, they added.
The construction was done by the PLA to claim that the area belonged to them. This area is adjacent to Depsang plains where PLA had pitched camps in April, 2013 that had led to a three-week long stalemate.
China has been trying to make inroads in Burtse area as it will give access to the PLA to monitor the activities of Indian troops based in Old Patol base besides trying to deny an advantage to India to overlook the Karakoram highway linking the territory illegally occupied by China with Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir(PoK).
Besides, India has an Advanced Ground Landing (AGL) facility in Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) which was activated in August 2013 and the Indian Air Force (IAF) had managed to land a C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft at the air strip located at 16,614 feet above sea level.
The initial existence of a hut was seen first on a satellite imagery after which a joint patrol of ITBP and Army was sent to the area to have a report from ground zero. Later, it was decided to demolish the hut which prompted Chinese PLA to reach the area resulting in the face-off.
Indian troops displayed the banners in Chinese asking the PLA to return to their side, the sources said.
India and China share over 4,000 kms of LAC. China claims approximately 90,000 sq km of territory in Arunachal Pradesh besides 38,000 sq kms in Jammu and Kashmir sector.
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