After four years, Indian troops resume patrols at Demchok in eastern Ladakh

Days after New Delhi announced a “patrolling arrangement” with China at two friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), Indian troops resumed the drill at Demchok in eastern Ladakh on Friday.

This is the first patrol by the Indian side in the area since the April 2020 standoff with the Chinese troops. Patrolling at Depsang, also in eastern Ladakh, is expected to resume soon.

The two sides also exchanged sweets at five locations along the LAC in eastern Ladakh to mark Diwali on Thursday.

Sources said the first patrol was carried out by the Indian troops at Charding Nullah, also known as Demchok Nullah, on Friday. The patrol was coordinated with the Chinese army after troops from both sides completed disengagement along the nullah, which goes on to join the Indus.

On October 21, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri had announced the reopening of the patrolling routes at Depsang and Demchok. The exercise entails troops informing the other side before launching a patrol party. These coordinated patrols are part of the measures put in place to prevent a face-off at the LAC, the Army sources said.

The arrangement at Depsang is crucial for India as it will reopen routes at Patrolling Point 10, 11, 12 and 13. These routes go eastwards of the “bottleneck” — a geographical feature — on the 972 sq km Depsang Plateau in eastern Ladakh. An Indian patrol last went east of the “bottleneck” in January 2020. The present arrangement doesn’t mention resumption of patrolling at any other contentious point in eastern Ladakh where disengagement has been completed. These are at Gogra, Hot Springs, Pangong Tso and Galwan.

The modalities for patrols have been worked out at the brigade commander level. The patrolling resumed after troops on either side physically verified removal of structures and manmade blockages on routes at Depsang and Demchok. All temporary structures, tents, vehicles, cameras, sensors and weapons had been removed, the sources said. These structures and equipment were set up to block patrolling routes of the other side along the Line of Actual Control. Amid the exercise, Indian and Chinese troops exchanged sweets at five points along the Line of Actual Control to mark Diwali. A small contingent (of 8-10 soldiers) from both sides saluted each other and exchanged sweets.

The exchange happened at Karakoram Pass, the northern-most point along the India-China boundary, Hot Springs and Kongka La — all three spots are extremely sensitive with Hot Springs being one of friction points where the two sides were locked in an eyeball-to-eyeball standoff from April 2020 onwards — besides the designated border meeting points at Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) and Spanggur Gap (Chushul).

Before the April-2020 military standoff between the two countries, the two sides used to meet at these designated spots on ceremonial occasions.

Proud of border infra now: Rijiju

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju celebrated Diwali with Indian soldiers at Bumla Pass in Arunachal and praised India’s border infrastructure. “After talking to Chinese soldiers and seeing the infra, everyone will feel proud of India’s border development now,” he posted on X. ANI