Amid a spate of incursions by China in Ladakh, its troops are also resorting to tactics like preventing Indian Army from patrolling posts in this sector along the border which was well within India’s territory.
In what is being described as an aggressive approach by China, the tactics have come to the fore in the wake of yet another incident last week when Indian troops launched its patrol “Tiranga” from Trade Junction area in North of Ladakh for two posts located 14 km up in the higher reaches along the Line of Actual Control. The Indian Army personnel were stopped by Chinese troops who came mounted on heavy and light vehicles, official sources said on Sunday. The patrol party was shown a banner that it was Chinese territory and that they cannot proceed to the posts, they said.
The sources said the Chinese troops were aggressive in their approach while stopping the Indian patrol who were at their posts. These posts are well inside Indian territory, the sources said, adding that from April 2013 the patrol for these forward bases were launched 21 times and only twice it could complete its mission.
Chinese have erected an observation post which kept a vigil on movement of Indian troops and as soon as an Indian patrol party is ready to leave, they are intercepted midway and sent back, the sources said, adding the matter would be taken up during the next Border Personnel Meeting at Chushul. In the same North Ladakh sector, there were instances when Chinese military vehicles were spotted.