No visible Chinese incursion since 1962, claims Arunachal Pradesh BJP leader

OUR CORRESPONDENT

ITANAGAR: There has been no visible incursion or encroachment of land in Arunachal Pradesh by China since 1962, a senior BJP leader in the state has claimed after a tour of the last villages and outposts along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Arunachal Pradesh shares a disputed 1,129 km border with China’s Tibetan Autonomous Region. The LAC demarcates the disputed border between India and China. The BJP’s state vice president, Tarh Tarak, had led the ‘Seema Yatra’ (border tour) comprising 10 party leaders. Local party leaders joined each leg of the tour that started on December 22 in the Anjaw sector and ended in the Tawang sector on April 24. "During our border tour of more than four months, we interacted with the personnel of the Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police along the LAC and also with the residents of the border villages. We came to know that the situation on the border is normal and peaceful," he claimed. "There is no visible encroachment of our state’s land by the Chinese soldiers. But members of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army sometimes enter our territory by mistake during long-range patrols along the LAC, which is challenged by our Indian soldiers," Tarak said, adding that this happens as the border between the two Asian giants is not clearly defined.

A senior Army official, however, said cases of low-impact incursions have been reported in the eastern and western parts of Arunachal Pradesh in recent times. "Our soldiers thwarted their attempts," the Army officer said, seeking anonymity. "We decided to conduct the tour after Indian and Chinese troops clashed along the LAC at Yangtse, in the Tawang sector of the state, on December 9, 2022, which created a hue and cry throughout the country. Our aim was to salute the armed forces guarding the border in harsh conditions and also to physically visit the border outposts and know the ground reality," Tarak said. He said the tour gave the BJP team an idea of the problems faced by the people living in the border areas and the status of the implementation of various central and state government schemes.

Some soldiers from both countries sustained minor injuries during the December 9 clash in the Tawang sector. Both sides, however, disengaged from the area immediately. A similar incident took place in October 2021, when a large Chinese patrol team was detained for a few hours by the Indian Army near Yangtse. China claims some 90,000 sq. km of Arunachal Pradesh as its territory. It calls the area ‘Zangnan’ in the Chinese language and makes repeated references to ‘South Tibet’. Chinese maps show Arunachal Pradesh as part of China and sometimes refer to it as ‘so-called Arunachal Pradesh’. On April 2, the Chinese government released a list of "standardised" names of 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh in Chinese, Tibetan, and pinyin characters, acting in accordance with regulations on geographical names issued by the State Council, the equivalent of the Chinese Cabinet.

This is not the first time that China has done something like this. It released two different sets of "standardised" names of places in Arunachal Pradesh back in 2017 and 2021. On August 12, 2013, at Chaglagam, the last village on the Indo-China border in the Anjaw district of the state, the Chinese Army arrived, stayed, and left. They not only entered almost 40 kms into India but also held a few porters hostage for several hours. Five youths who went hunting on September 2, 2020, were allegedly whisked away by Chinese troops from Sera-7, an Army patrol zone located in Upper Subansiri district. They were later released in the Anjaw district of the state after a few days. On January 18 last year, a youth was abducted at gunpoint from a jungle at Lungta Jor in Upper Siang district. Later, he was released on January 28.

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