LEH: China in the wee hours of Tuesday accused Indian troops of having fired bullet shots across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in an area south of the Pangong Tso, a 135 km glacial-melt lake.
A statement by Colonel Zhang Shuili of China’s People’s Liberation Army’s Western Theater Command, was reported by Global Times, a Chinese state owned news outlet at almost 2:30 am China time on Tuesday. That would be midnight in India. The PLA claimed the incident occurred on September 7, Monday.
The Indian side has so far not responded to this claim. Indications are that a response was expected soon.
Since 1967, no bullets have been fired across the LAC, when an incident occurred at Nathu La and both sides were involved in a bloody skirmish. In another incident in 1974, a few Assam Rifles personnel had lost their lives when they inadvertently crossed over the undefined boundary in Arunachal Pradesh.
Sources on the Indian said it was the PLA on September 7 that was trying to capture a peak held by India.
The PLA had earlier said that the “Indian Army blatantly fired threats to the patrol personnel of the Chinese border guards who had made representations, and the Chinese border guards were forced to take countermeasures to stabilize the situation on the ground (sic).”
The Chinese spokesperson alleged the Indian Army had illegally crossed the LAC and India’s actions seriously violated the relevant agreements between China and India.