Staff Reporter / New Delhi
India today denied firing shots at the Line of Actual Control, LAC where the Indian and Chinese troops have been engaged in stand-off for over three months, government sources said. The statement came hours after the People’s Liberation Army accused the Indian troops of illegally crossing the border at the shore of the God Pao Mountain area and firing threat shots.
“India, while is committed to disengagement and de-escalating the situation on the LAC, China continues to undertake provocative activities to escalate. At no stage has the Indian Army transgressed across the LAC or resorted to use of any aggressive means, including firing,” Ministry of Defence said in a statement.
The ministry further said it is in fact the PLA that has been blatantly “violating agreements and carrying out aggressive manoeuvres”, while engagement at military, diplomatic and political level is in progress.
“In the instant case on September 7, 2020, it was the PLA troops who were attempting to close-in with one of our forward positions along the LAC and when dissuaded by own troops, PLA troops fired a few rounds in the air in an attempt to intimidate own troops. However, despite the grave provocation, own troops exercised great restraint and behaved in a mature and responsible manner,” the MoD statement read.
This comes two days after the defence ministers of India and China met in Moscow, and two days ahead of the scheduled meeting between the foreign ministers. “These are serious military provocations.. of a very bad nature,” PLA’s Western Theater Command spokesperson Col Zhang Shuili said.
Both sides have observed a long-held protocol to avoid using firearms on the sensitive, high altitude frontier running through the western Himalayas, though this agreement has not prevented casualties.
Twenty Indian soldiers were killed in hand-to-hand fighting in a clash in June, an incident that led to China and India deploying additional forces along the frontier.
“We request the Indian side to immediately stop dangerous actions…and strictly investigate and punish personnel who fired shots to ensure that similar incidents do not occur again,” Shuili said.