India-China Tawang clash: ‘PLA patrol transgression was firmly contested’ says Lt Gen Kalita | India News
Speaking to the reporters, during the wreath-laying ceremony, on the occasion of Vijay Diwas, Kalita said the local commanders were able to resolve the issue by carrying out negotiations resorting to the existing protocols which was followed by a flag meeting at the delegation level at Bumla.
Explained: What happened between Indian and Chinese forces in Tawang and why
“You all are aware that all across the border there are different perceptions in the Line of Actual Control (LAC), there are eight recognized disputed areas where the different perceptions are acknowledged by both sides. So in one of those areas, where there are different perceptions of the LAC, PLA patrol transgressed and which was contested very firmly,” the top military officer said.
“I am happy to say that it was contained at the local level. Though some minor injuries were there to soldiers of both sides. I would also like to request you to listen to any rumours, it was only minor injuries to soldiers from both sides,” he added.
Kalita further affirmed that the border areas along the northern frontier are stable and are “firmly in control”.
On Tuesday, defence minister Rajnath Singh informed Parliament that Chinese troops tried to transgress across the LAC at Yangtse in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh on December 9 in a bid to “unilaterally change the status quo” there but were beaten back by Indian soldiers.
The defence minister, however, made it clear that the PLA troops had provoked the face-off, and that India has asked China to “refrain from such actions and maintain peace and tranquillity along the border” through both military and diplomatic channels.
This is not the first time that the PLA has tried to gain access to the 17,000-feet peak in the forbidding terrain at Yangtse, or the ‘Mago-Chuna’ area as it is militarily called. A similar PLA bid was thwarted by Indian soldiers in October last year. Tawang is one of the most heavily defended regions by India along the 3,488-km LAC with China, which claims it as part of ‘South Tibet’ and had captured it in the initial days of the 1962 war.
(With agency inputs) Watch Issues resolved, we are firmly in control: Lt Gen RP Kalita on border areas along northern frontier
