The Chinese are wasting no time horsing around. Around a month after their last reported land incursion on June 17, around 50 soldiers of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), on horses and ponies, intruded into the Indian territory of Chumar near Daulat Beg Oldie in Ladakh and staked claim to it.
Sources claim that the Chinese troops began their incursion into the Chumar area on the evening of July 16 and stayed within the Indian side till the next morning.
Army sources confirm the incursion, saying Indian troops intercepted the PLA patrol in Chumar and after the usual banner drill between the two sides, the Chinese went back into their territory.
But, sources say, tensions ran high. The PLA troops reportedly told the Indian soldiers to vacate the area, claiming that they were on Chinese territory.
The incursion comes soon after two of China’s helicopters violated the Indian air space on July 11 in Chumar sector.
It was the same area in the Leh-Ladakh sector that Chinese troops had intruded into on June 17 and threatened the locals in Hindi. They even broke some surveillance cameras that the Indian army had installed in the area.
Chumar, about 300km from Leh, has always been a sore point for the Chinese troops as this is the only area along the border where they do not have any direct access to the line of actual control.
The latest incursion took place on the day India gave its nod to the creation of a 50,000-personnel strong Mountain Strike Corps along the border.
The frequency of such incursions increased around the time defence minister AK Antony visited China earlier this month.
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