Amid mounting tensions between India and China along the disputed Line of Actual Control (LAC) some Indian troops were detained and later released by the Chines Army after a skirmish broke out between the two sides in Ladakh recently, according to Indian media report.
The NDTV reported that both the Indian and Chinese sides had a border meeting where the commanders of the two sides had a talk and the situation was brought under control.
"The situation became very volatile last Wednesday (May 20) when a scuffle between Indian jawans and the Chinese resulted in detention of some of our jawans but later they were released," NDTV quoted a senior bureaucrat as saying.
The Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane had on Friday (May 22) visited Leh, the headquarters of 14 Corps in Ladakh to review the operational situation, a day after the Government on Thursday denied China's claims that India is carrying out any activity in violation of the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh and Sikkim, according to the Statesman.
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) has erected a sizeable number of tents in the Galwan Valley of Ladakh - an area over which India is sensitive about since the showdown in the 1962 war.
More than 5,000 Chinese soldiers of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) have intruded into five points in Ladakh - four along the Galwan River, and one near the Pangong Lake, the paper reported on Saturday, May 23, according to Business Standard.
Chinese intrusions took place at three places in the Galwan area, inside Indian territory, according to The Indian Express sources the Statesman said adding that Chinese troops have crossed the LAC at Hot Springs and in two locations 15-20 km to the north-west, Patrolling Point 14 (PP-14) and PP-15.
China has recently accused India of unilaterally attempting to change the status of the un-demarcated border in Ladakh after troops of the two countries were involved in scuffles at Ladakh and Sikkim in which more than ten of them were injured.
On May 21 India rejected Beijing's allegation that Indian troops crossed over to the Chinese side of the frontier in Ladakh and Sikkim while claiming that it was, in fact, the Chinese side that had recently undertaken activity at the border hindering India's normal patrolling pattern.
U.S. reaction
The United States said on Wednesday (May 20) that the tension on the border between India and China in Ladakh and Sikkim was a reminder of the fact that Chinese aggression can be real, not merely rhetorical. America's remarks came after Indian and Chinese armies rushed in additional troops in areas around Pangong Tso and Galwan Valley in Ladakh, according to Press Trust of India.
"The flareups on the border, I think, are a reminder that Chinese aggression is not always just rhetorical," Alice Wells, the head of the South and Central Asia bureau in the US Department of State, was quoted by PTI as saying. "And so whether it is the South China Sea or whether it is along the border with India, we continue to see provocations and disturbing behaviour by China."
"That's why you've seen a rallying of like-minded nations whether it is in ASEAN [Association of South East Asian Nations] or through other diplomatic groupings like the trilateral with the US, Japan and India, or the Quad," Wells said. She added that these groups are attempting to "reinforce the principles of the post-World War II global order that supported free and open trade," Alice Wells added.
