Tanvi Sinha
In midst of China-India talks on January 24th to address the now 9-month-long standoff along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh a village head claimed that Indian roads were being used for Chinese Vehicles to enter India.
The village head, Urgain Tsewang of Koyul shared a video where two Chinese vehicles were removed by security personnel and locals, in another video last year December, Chinese civilians were seen photographing the area.
Urgain also complained of nomads being shooed away by Chinese people in their own area. Their nomads had apparently not been in the area due to some illness and when they came back, they saw the area was taken by Chinese Personnel.
The villagers apparently stood guard and did not move an inch even after four to five days, to chase Chinese personnel away last year after being asked by the authorities to do the same.
Urgain’s claimed that it wasn’t just the Chinese army that was on Indian land, but also Chinese civilians.
Last year the defence ministry had informed the Upper hour of parliament that the reason for the standoffs was patrolling being interrupted in April 2020.
Indian troops were denied access to the Patrolling Points number 9, 10, 11, 12, 12A, 13, 14, 15, 17 and 17A.
Chinese personnel had taken control of about 8 kms in the finger area of Pangong Tso lake, (where the troops were denied control) resulting in Indian troops being unable to patrol beyond Finger 4 when they could earlier go up to Finger 8.
The talks on their sixth round had both sides agreeing on a joint statement to stop sending more troops to the frontline and were guided by the five-point plan for disengagement and de-escalation agreed between India and China’s External Affairs Minister.
In the most recent talks, there has been decided to be a comprehensive disengagement plan beginning with the friction points in East Ladakh and the de-escalation along the Line of Actual Control, but officials have already many times stated that total withdrawal will take time considering the number of troops and equipment in the area.