Will Verify Authenticity of Report on Uttarakhand Incursion: China

ITBP officials said they were already seized of the matter and, following the incident, a through security review of the 350-km India-China border in the state was carried out. “ADSD discusses the whole gamut of bilateral defence relations”, Akbar said when asked whether India has raised with Beijing the issue of a Pentagon report that China has deployed more troops on Indian borders. “I don’t think we should be alarmed, but we should certainly take this seriously and it should be handled simultaneously at the field, diplomatic and political level”, Aiyar told PTI on the sidelines of the formal launch of Karnataka Regional Economic Trade Organisation (KRETO) here.

Indian troops faced off for 40 minutes with Chinese soldiers who intruded into Uttarakhand last week, said the government on Wednesday.

The Uttarakhand CM said it was a relief that the Chinese forces did not reach an important canal in that area.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat flagged the incursion and reported the matter to the Union Home Ministry.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Thursday said that incursions by the Chinese troops disturb the peace, adding that efforts should be made to maintain normalcy in the region. “I believe the government will take necessary cognizance”.

Senior state government officials said the incursion was spotted in Badahoti in Chamoli district. The Indian team was sent back by the Chinese troops camping there who claimed it was Chinese territory. To avoid further confrontation, the officials returned and informed personnel at the ITBP post about the incursion by the Chinese side. “So there is a different perception about this on both the sides”, Parrikar said.

The sources said that ever since this agreement, ITBP, which mans the 3,488-km Sino-Indian border from Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh in Northeast, had never entered the area with arms. “The incident did not last more than a few minutes”.

“India-China border has not been formally demarcated”.

However, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat denied having any information about a Chinese Army chopper landing in the area on July 25.

Indian and Chinese officials have both sought to play down reports of “incursions”, describing them instead as “transgressions” across the LAC that take place in certain sections where there are overlapping claim lines of the undemarcated LAC, as both sides patrol up to their respective claims.