Chinese troops entered Indian territory in the fag end of 2010 along the Line of Actual Control in South-eastern Ladakh region and threatened a contractor and his team to halt work on constructing a "passenger shed".
The soft talk of premier Wen Jiabao on his recent visit to India apart, Chinese dadagiri on the border in Ladakh continues.
In a revelation that threatens the warming of relations between the two South Asian majors of late, Chinese troops crossed over to the Indian side sometime during September-October and forced the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) government to suspend building of passenger sheds at Demchok in Leh district.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) personnel said the territory where the construction was taking place was “disputed”.
Fearing tension, the J&K government stopped work and reported the matter to the Indian army, which guards the line of actual control (LAC) in Ladakh.
“Chinese troops came and told us to stop work. Our army also said unless clearance comes from the ministries of defence and external affairs, no work will be done,” Leh district development commissioner T Angchok said.
He said the work had just begun when it was stopped by the Chinese army.
This is the second time a developmental work has been abandoned in Ladakh under Chinese pressure. Earlier, the J&K government had stopped building a road after PLA objected.
“A portion of the road had been laid when objection came from the Chinese side. We had to abandon the project,” J&K minister for rural development Ali Mohammad Sagar said.
Of late, the Chinese army has been intruding at will. Sometime ago, the troops crossed over and threatened nomads grazing cattle near the border.
In 2009, the Chinese army had violated the international border in Ladakh and painted boulders and rocks in the area red. The troops had entered nearly 1.5 km into India on July 31 near Mount Gya.
Before this, Chinese helicopters had violated Indian air space on June 21 and heli-dropped rotten food.
While China has been preventing construction by India, its own misadventures continue. In 2009, for the first time after the 1962 standoff between the two countries, the Chinese army carried out construction along the international border across the Karakoram ranges in Ladakh.
A J&K government report had then claimed that the Chinese were taking “land in inches, not in yards”.
Union minister for new and renewable energy Farooq Abdullah has a word of caution.
“We want friendship with China, but at the same time we have to take steps for our security. The Chinese prime minister recently visited India and there was a lot of hope. But unfortunately, water has been poured on some of our expectations,” he said.
—With PTI inputs
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