NEW DELHI: The Army has now kicked off full-scale patrolling at Demchok in eastern Ladakh , while it will soon follow suit in Depsang Plains after the initial patrols in the area verified that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had completely dismantled its temporary structures and pulled back its troops to pre-April 2020 positions.
The patrolling is being conducted after informing the PLA in advance as per the terms of the Oct 21 pact on “patrolling arrangements”, which led to disengagement in the remaining two of the seven major face-off sites that arose after multiple Chinese incursions into eastern Ladakh in April-May 2020.
“Our patrols now have full unrestricted access to the five patrolling points (PPs) in Depsang and two in Demchok, which was earlier blocked by Chinese soldiers. The PLA, too, has begun its own patrols with prior information to us to prevent the possibility of any clash,” a defence source told TOI on Friday.
As part of the initial patrols, Indian soldiers went up to PP-10, 11, 11A, 12 and 13 in Depsang Plains for the first time in almost five years through the “Bottleneck”, the area around 18-km inside Indian territory where the PLA was blocking them from going any further since April-May 2020.
“The patrols at both Depsang and Demchok will be determined by our operational requirements and tasking,” the source said. The longer duration patrols with more distance to cover will have 20-25 armed soldiers, while the shorter ones will have 10-15 soldiers.
Depsang, a table-top plateau located at an altitude of 16,000-feet, is part of India’s vital Sub-Sector North (SSN), which also includes the Daulat Beg Oldie airstrip, and strategically located near the critical Karakoram Pass in the northernmost part of eastern Ladakh. China claims almost all the 972 square km of territory in the Depsang Plains, where both sides have vast overlapping claims.
“Depsang, where tanks can also operate, is far more important than other areas like Pangong Tso in eastern Ladakh. It is the only place where our PPs fall short of our perception of the Line of Actual Control (LAC). In other places, the PPs are almost bang on the LAC,” another source said.
At the Charding Ninglung Nallah track junction near Demchok in the south, Indian troops will now access two important PPs, while villagers can also go to their traditional grazing grounds there. “Our troops will now be able to patrol right till Charding La (La means pass) at an altitude of over 19,000-feet,” the source said.
After “stabilization” at Depsang and Demchok, India’s focus will shift to the restoration of patrolling rights in areas where “no patrol buffer zones” were established after previous rounds of disengagements till Sept 2022.
These buffer zones at Galwan, north bank of Pangong Tso, the Kailash Range and the larger Gogra-Hot Springs area, varying from 3-km to 10-km, largely came up on what India considers to be its own territory. “They were temporary arrangements to prevent clashes. We want unhindered patrolling in these areas as well,” the source said.
There is, of course, still a long way to go for India’s demand for de-escalation and de-induction of the over 50,000 PLA troops forward deployed in eastern Ladakh, with another 90,000 across Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh in the eastern sector, to be accepted by China.
The patrolling is being conducted after informing the PLA in advance as per the terms of the Oct 21 pact on “patrolling arrangements”, which led to disengagement in the remaining two of the seven major face-off sites that arose after multiple Chinese incursions into eastern Ladakh in April-May 2020.
“Our patrols now have full unrestricted access to the five patrolling points (PPs) in Depsang and two in Demchok, which was earlier blocked by Chinese soldiers. The PLA, too, has begun its own patrols with prior information to us to prevent the possibility of any clash,” a defence source told TOI on Friday.
As part of the initial patrols, Indian soldiers went up to PP-10, 11, 11A, 12 and 13 in Depsang Plains for the first time in almost five years through the “Bottleneck”, the area around 18-km inside Indian territory where the PLA was blocking them from going any further since April-May 2020.
“The patrols at both Depsang and Demchok will be determined by our operational requirements and tasking,” the source said. The longer duration patrols with more distance to cover will have 20-25 armed soldiers, while the shorter ones will have 10-15 soldiers.
Depsang, a table-top plateau located at an altitude of 16,000-feet, is part of India’s vital Sub-Sector North (SSN), which also includes the Daulat Beg Oldie airstrip, and strategically located near the critical Karakoram Pass in the northernmost part of eastern Ladakh. China claims almost all the 972 square km of territory in the Depsang Plains, where both sides have vast overlapping claims.
“Depsang, where tanks can also operate, is far more important than other areas like Pangong Tso in eastern Ladakh. It is the only place where our PPs fall short of our perception of the Line of Actual Control (LAC). In other places, the PPs are almost bang on the LAC,” another source said.
At the Charding Ninglung Nallah track junction near Demchok in the south, Indian troops will now access two important PPs, while villagers can also go to their traditional grazing grounds there. “Our troops will now be able to patrol right till Charding La (La means pass) at an altitude of over 19,000-feet,” the source said.
After “stabilization” at Depsang and Demchok, India’s focus will shift to the restoration of patrolling rights in areas where “no patrol buffer zones” were established after previous rounds of disengagements till Sept 2022.
These buffer zones at Galwan, north bank of Pangong Tso, the Kailash Range and the larger Gogra-Hot Springs area, varying from 3-km to 10-km, largely came up on what India considers to be its own territory. “They were temporary arrangements to prevent clashes. We want unhindered patrolling in these areas as well,” the source said.
There is, of course, still a long way to go for India’s demand for de-escalation and de-induction of the over 50,000 PLA troops forward deployed in eastern Ladakh, with another 90,000 across Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh in the eastern sector, to be accepted by China.
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