Author: PTI
Publication: The Times of India
Date: September 14, 2009
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/Construction-by-Chinese-army-across-Karakoram-JK-report/articleshow/5007108.cms
The Chinese army has done some construction
activities along the international border across Karakoram ranges in Ladakh
sector for the first time since the 1962 stand-off between the two countries
with a report of Jammu and Kashmir government saying that they have been taking
"land in inches and not in yards".
The Chinese Army - PLA - has been engaged
in construction activities across the Karakoram ranges which could be used
for either stationing of additional personnel or mounting a camera for monitoring
Indian troop movement, official sources said.
The Karakoram pass falls precisely on the
boundary between India and China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region, marking northern
end of Sino-Indian border, known as the Line of Actual Control.
It also plays a major geographic role in the
dispute between Pakistan and India over control of the Siachen Glacier area
immediately to the west of the pass.
This situation arose from the Simla Agreement,
signed in 1972 between India and Pakistan, when the treaty failed to specify
the last 100 km of ceasefire line from end of the Line of Control to Karakoram
Pass. The West of the Pass is also referred as China-Indian-Pakistani tripoint.
While Army tried to downplay this development,
they, however acknowledged that some digging activity had been noticed. "There
has been no report of concrete huts being built across Karakoram Pass. However,
some digging has been noticed well inside Chinese territory," an Army
spokesman said in a written reply to PTI.
In a related development, the report of Jammu
and Kashmir government highlights the Chinese incursions into various parts
of Ladakh.
"They (Chinese) have threatened the nomadic
people who had been using Dokbug area (in Ladakh sector) area for grazing
since decades long, in a way to snatch our land in inches. A Chinese proverb
is famous in the world - better do in inches than in yards," the report
filed by a former Sub Divisional Magistrate (Nyoma) Tsering Norboo said.
Norboo had been deputed by the state government
to probe incursion of Chinese Army in Dokbug area and threatening the local
shepherds to leave the land as it belonged to them. The area has been used
by the shepherds to graze their livestock as the area is warmer compared to
other parts of Ladakh.
The SDM pointed out that it was another attempt
by Chinese to claim the territory as disputed in the same fashion as they
had taken Nag Tsang area opposite to Phuktse airfield in 1984, Nakung in 1991
and Lungma-Serding in 1992.
