Fresh skirmish stirs China-India border tensions

17:49 9/9/2020 - Πηγή: Armynow

India and China have accused each other of firing in the air during a new confrontation on their border in the western Himalayas, in a further escalation of military tension between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

China said Tuesday its soldiers took “countermeasures” after Indian soldiers opened fire

in a contested mountainous region in Ladakh, in an incident Beijing described as a “severe military provocation.”

“The Indian troops brazenly made gunshot threat to the patrolling Chinese border guards who came forward for negotiations, and the Chinese border guards were forced to take countermeasures to stabilize the situation,” said Zhang Shuili, a commander in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

New Delhi offered its own account of the skirmish, accusing Chinese border forces of “blatantly violating agreements” and firing “a few rounds in the air” to intimidate their Indian rivals.

On Monday night, troops of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) attempted to close in on a forward Indian position at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), or the de facto border, in the Ladakh sector, the Indian army said in a statement.

“And when dissuaded by own (Indian troops), PLA troops fired a few rounds in the air in an attempt to intimidate own troops,” the army said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that the Indian side acted with restraint.

The world’s two most populous countries have blamed each other for a June 15 battle in the Ladakh region in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed while China suffered an unknown number of casualties.

Source: i24news.tv

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