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China standoff: Army Chief briefs Cabinet panel on security
Ajay Banerjee/TNS

The options The Army Chief spells out options available with the Army to counter Chinese incursion These include deployment of additional troops for aggressive posturing and cutting off supply lines of Chinese troops An Indian Army team headed by a Brigadier crossed over to the Chinese side of Chushul to hold the annual Border Personnel Meeting on Labour Day

China building road The Indian Government has been informed of some UAV images captured over the past one week showing Chinese converting a dirt track into a metalled road near the scene of the standoff with India in northern Ladakh. The dirt track is being used by the Chinese to get supplies from a place 25 km away where a border defence regiment is stationed.

New Delhi, May 1
Indian Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh presented a “factual status report” on Chinese incursion to the Cabinet Committee on Security headed by the Prime Minister today. He suggested various options to the government on resolving the issue, including aggressive use of force. This reportedly includes options such as cutting off Chinese supply lines in the area.

Interdicting the Chinese supply line to the tents where its soldiers are presently camping will need surgical operation of great speed to occupy the ground.

China has a line-of-sight view of any possible ingress routes which the Indian troops may use to interdict the Chinese supply route from its base to the site where the tents are pitched.

Within the government, the opinion is to “constructively resolve the issue and contain the fallout locally”, sources confirmed tonight.

Army’s suggestion is that the tented position of the Chinese has to be made untenable.

The BJP has said the Chinese intrusion may turn out to be a “Kargil-like” issue. The party said India should deploy additional troops in the area if it felt the Chinese were enhancing their presence.

China’s claims that it did provoke border tension with India may be hollow as an armed patrol troop of the Chinese People Liberation Army conducted a full-scale reconnaissance in the disputed areas along the Line of Actual Control in northern Ladakh on April 10 - five days before pitching in their tents in the area. On April 25, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson had claimed in Beijing: “I don’t agree that it is the Chinese side that has provoked confrontation between border troops.”

Meanwhile, a routine border personnel meeting was conducted at the Spanggur Gap, the designated routine meeting point in eastern Ladakh, this morning.