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Ladakh again, Chinese troops take away camera
Return it before Antony’s Beijing visit
Not an incursion: Govt
Tribune News Service

Jammu/New Delhi, July 9
The ground situation along the Indian-China border remains hazy, notwithstanding the recent announcements by the two countries to scale up their defence ties.

Nearly three months after a bitter border standoff, Chinese troops reportedly entered the disputed section of the Line of Actual Control in the Chumar sector in Ladakh and took away a non-functional secret camera.

“The incident happened on June 17. The camera had been placed at an altitude of almost 13,000 feet and it was taken away by a patrol team of the Peoples Liberation Army,” said Army sources. On June 19, India took up the issue of the missing camera at a routine border meeting. The matter was resolved on July 3, just before Defence Minister AK Antony’s China visit, following a flag meeting at the Spanngur Gap in Eastern Ladakh. The camera has been returned by the Chinese side, said sources.

The camera had been placed to see any incoming Chinese patrol teams, said sources, adding that it was a normal military practice. The camera has the facility to beam live pictures to the nearest Army post, some 5 km away, but it was non-functional, said Army sources.

Government sources said India was not treating the incident as an "incursion" by the Chinese, as the incident happened on a disputed territory. Both Indian and Chinese troops routinely patrol the area.

Under a 2005 protocol on patrolling on disputed sections of the LAC, armies of either side show a banner to the other on coming face-to-face and retreat. In April this year, a Chinese platoon had entered and set up tents around 19 km inside Indian territory in the Daulat Beg Oldie sector in Ladakh.

Antony and his Chinese counterpart had on July 6 pledged to strengthen the existing agreements on maintaining peace and tranquility along the LAC.

The two sides also promised speedy negotiations on new Border Defence Cooperation Agreement. China keeps on staking its claim over Chumar where India has road connectivity and is at strategic advantage. China, on the other hand, faces steep mountains on its sides and has no permanent posts or infrastructure in its area.

Armyman killed in Uri

An Army soldier was killed on Tuesday in an encounter with the militants in the Uri sector in north Kashmir. “The militants, who were trying to sneak into the Indian side, opened fire near the Rustum post, resulting in the death of Havildar Yem Bahadur of 7 JAK Rifles,” said Army sources.

Fresh border tussle

Chinese troops reportedly entered the disputed section of the LAC in the Chumar sector in Ladakh and took away a non-functional secret camera
On June 19, India took up the issue at a routine border meeting. The matter was resolved on July 3 following a flag meeting at the Spanngur Gap in Eastern Ladakh
In April this year, a Chinese platoon had entered and set up tents around 19 km inside Indian territory in the Daulat Beg Oldie sector in Ladakh

— TNS

(With inputs from Ajay Banerjee in New Delhi and Ravi Krishan Khajuria in Jammu)