About 1,000 square kilometres of area in Ladakh along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) is now under Chinese control, reported The Hindu, quoting intelligence inputs provided to the Centre.
Beijing has been building up troop presence along the LAC since April-May; at least twenty Indian troopers were killed on 15 June in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh in violent clashes with China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops.
An unidentified senior government official told the newspaper that from Depsang Plains to Chushul there had been a systematic mobilisation by the Chinese troops along the undefined LAC.
The official revealed that in Depsang Plains, from patrolling point 10-13, the scale of Chinese control of India’s perception of the LAC stood at about 900 sq.km.
About 20 sq. km in Galwan Valley and 12 sq. km in Hot Springs area is said to be under Chinese occupation, the official said. In Pangong Tso, the area under Chinese control is 65 sq. km, whereas in Chushul it is 20 sq. km, the official said.
On the intervening night of 29 and 30 August, India and China clashed again even after several rounds of diplomatic and military level talks for months. A partial disengagement commenced after Special Representatives (SRs) Ajit Doval and Wang Yi, tasked to hammer out a solution to the boundary dispute, spoke on July 5.
