In a worrying disclosure, India has lost 26 out of 65 patrolling points in Eastern Ladakh amid the country's ongoing standoff with China along the 3,500-km contested border.
The revelation was made in a new report by a senior police officer at last week's annual conference of the country's top police officers in Delhi, attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. The report, which has been accessed by NDTV states, "Presently there are 65 PPs (Patrolling Points) starting from Karakoram pass to Chumur which are to be patrolled regularly by the ISFs (Indian Security Forces). Out of 65 PPs, our presence is lost in 26 PPs (i.e. PP no. 5-17, 24-32, 37, due to restrictive or no patrolling by the ISFs."
The report comes just over a month after India accused China of trying to "unilaterally change the status quo" on their de-facto border, known as the Line of Actual Control.
It further states that while these points lagged behind surveillance from the ISFs, China has forced India to accept that these areas now have a Chinese presence. "This leads to a shift in the border under control of ISFs towards Indian side and a "buffer zone" is created in all such pockets which ultimately leads to loss of control over these areas by India. This tactic of PLA (China's People's Liberation Army) to grab land inch-by-inch is known as 'Salami slicing'," the report accessed by NDTV states.
Additionally, the officers have alleged that China has taken advantage of the de-escalation talks and placed their surveillance equipment at the highest tops of the buffer zones and currently monitors the movement of the Indian armed forces. Further, they push back the Indian side and demanded the creation of more buffer zones.
In a response to the report, a senior defence official told The Hindu that "there is no loss of territory due to disengagement in friction areas".
Last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping held a video conversation with the soldiers stationed along the India-China border in eastern Ladakh and inspected their combat readiness.
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Xi addressed the troops from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) headquarters on the border defence situation in Khunjerab under the Xinjiang Military Command.
Xi, who is also general secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China and the commander-in-chief of the PLA, in his remarks to the troops, referred to how “in recent years, the area has been constantly changing” and how it had impacted the Army, according to the video shown in the official media.
