China opens up new front in Ladakh; fresh trouble on southern banks of Pangong Tso

In a fresh spiraling of tension in eastern Ladakh, China opened up a new front as People’s Liberation Army troops carried out “provocative military movements to change the status quo” on the southern banks of the Pangong Tso (lake) in eastern Ladakh, but Indian troops prevented such attempts and managed to occupy the dominant heights.

While soldiers from India and China were locked in a stand-off for the last four months on the northern banks of the lake, PLA troops for the first time came to the southern banks of the 135 km lake and attempted to capture the heights to undermine the Indian position, sources told DH.

Indian Army troops not only successfully blocked the Chinese move but went on to occupy some of the crucial strategically advantageous heights on the southern banks of the lake. Some of the dominating features – claimed by both sides – are now under Indian control. A special operational battalion of the Indian Army played a key role in the entire operation.

“On the Night of August 29/30, 2020, PLA troops violated the previous consensus arrived at during military and diplomatic engagements during the ongoing standoff in eastern Ladakh and carried out provocative military movements to change the status quo,” Army spokesperson Col Aman Anand said in a statement.

“Indian troops preempted this PLA activity on the Southern Bank of Pangong Tso Lake, undertook measures to strengthen our positions and thwart Chinese intentions to unilaterally change facts on ground. The Indian Army is committed to maintaining peace and tranquility through dialogue, but is also equally determined to protect its territorial integrity.”

A Brigade Commander level Flag Meeting is in progress at Chushul to resolve the issue till the time filing this report.

The 826 km long Line of Actual Control – the disputed boundary between India and China – in Ladakh was on the boil for more than four months with PLA troops entering the Indian territory at several points from Depsang Plains in the north to the northern banks of the Pangong lake, pitching up tents, setting up border infrastructure and blocking the traditional patrolling routes of Indian troops.

The northern banks of the pristine lake in Ladakh is one of the spots where the PLA forced the Indian Army to stop its movement up to Finger 8 (mountain spurs on the banks identified by numbers 1-8), which was the Indian perception of the LAC. The Indian troops were stopped at Finger 4 and had to even retreat from the position because of a mutually agreed disengagement process.

Other areas where stand-off between Indian and PLA troops resulted in simmering tension are Galwan valley, Hot Spring and Gogra Post as well as Depsang plains, north of Galwan. In June, the Galwan valley also witnessed the most violent clash since the 1962 war in which 20 Indian soldiers including a Col rank officer and a sizable number of PLA troops were killed in a brutal hand-to-hand contact.

Five rounds of talks between senior military leaders and diplomatic engagement at the highest level including dialogues between the two Foreign Ministers failed to resolve the deadlock.

Last week Chief of the Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat had stated that there were military options on the table too if talks failed. Gen Rawat, however, didn’t elaborate on the nature of the option.