". . . Its an eyeball-to-eyeball situation there," says a top government official
by Vijaita Singh
The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has been engaged in a face-off with the China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) along the Line of Actual Control in Leh district’s Demchok area since Wednesday afternoon, a top government official told The Hindu.
The official said the PLA has come close to the Indian "side" of the LAC and have refused to go back.
It is learnt that some civilian project is going on in the area and China has objected to it.
The face-off comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrated Diwali with ITBP jawans at Mana in Uttarakhand, the last village on the Indian territory along the border with China.
“They came on Wednesday afternoon and stayed till night. They returned and came back this morning again. Its an eyeball-to-eyeball situation there,” said the official.
This is the first time since the 2014 incident when the Chinese Army came deep inside the Indian territory in Demchok to protest an ongoing irrigation project.
When contacted, Leh's deputy commissioner Prasanna Ramaswamy G. refused to comment on the incursion.
In April this year, residents of Demchok village demanded resettlement due to continued objections by China on laying a drinking water pipeline linking a hot spring to their village.
The ITBP has asked for a flag meeting with their Chinese counterparts.
India and China share over a 4,000 km disputed and unsettled boundary running from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh.