Face-offs with Chinese troops are continuing at several points on the border of India’s Arunachal Pradesh, according to Shatrujeet Singh Kapur, director general of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP). He said the situation has persisted since July. It is the first official acknowledgement of the ongoing tension on the border.
Six years ago, in 2020, India and China clashed in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh. The bloody clash also damaged diplomatic relations between Delhi and Beijing. Both countries have made fresh efforts to improve relations in the past few years.
Addressing ITBP troops in Alwar, Rajasthan, on Thursday, Kapur said there had been face-offs between the two countries’ troops at several places in Arunachal in recent days.
In July, tension broke out at an important patrol point in the Taksing area of Arunachal.
The ITBP chief said drone platoons have been formed in all the force’s border units to meet the challenges on the China border. Special combat training programmes to deal with Galwan-like situations and the building of underground infrastructure are also under way.
Meanwhile, the Congress party has criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence on the border situation. Its MP Jairam Ramesh alleged that the government was not taking proper action on issues such as the risk of losing access to patrol points in Arunachal, China’s renaming of places and its building of large dams.
After Doklam and eastern Ladakh, the fresh tension on the Arunachal border poses another challenge to relations between the two countries.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report