Over 100 soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) crossed the border on August 30 and entered Barahoti in Uttarakhand. They damaged infrastructure including a bridge before retreating, the Economic Times reported.
Barahoti, located on the border of Uttarakhand which meets China and is only about 400km away from Dehradun. The transgressors apparently stayed there for three hours, but there was no standoff as the PLA left before the Indian side could confront their presence.
The transgression by Chinese troops was reported by locals, after which teams from the Indian Army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police were dispatched to verify the report.
China’s intrusion in Uttarakhand has come even as talks about the disengagement of troops in the eastern Ladakh area are going on. This has surely rung bells in the ears of the Indian side, which will have to take more precautions than ever.
China also built a new garrison only 70 km away from the Barahoti plains. The People's Liberation Army had released videos of soldiers moving into the base along with mechanised and logistics units last year, during the standoff in eastern Ladakh.
Even though the Barahoti area has not been a major hotspot of conflict in recent years, minor transgressions have been consistently reported. In fact, the first-ever confrontation witnessed between China and India came in Barahoti when the PLA tried to intrude on it in 1954. This even led to the 1962 war.
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The Galwan Valley standoff started in May 2020 when the Chinese PLA reportedly started congregating around the LAC in eastern Ladakh. As the heat on the ground between two sides increased and official talks yielded nothing, on 15 June, at patrolling point 14, Indian and Chinese troops clashed for six hours in a steep section of a mountainous region in the Galwan Valley. The fighting resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers and 5 Chinese soldiers.
The escalation was later contained in February 2021, following series of high-level talks held at the diplomatic level. Both sides agreed to a ceasefire and withdrawal of troops and weapons from the north and south banks of the Pangong lake. Currently, both sides have around 50,000 to 60,000 troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the sensitive sector.
