New Delhi: Army Chief BipinRawat is visiting Sikkim today amid the standoff between Indian troops and Chinese army along the Sino-Indian border.
It is understood Army Chief will take stock of the operational matters and interact with top commanders in the formation headquarters of the force in the state bordering China
General Rawat is expected to travel to a number of other formation headquarters in the Northeast during his two-day long visit and review various operational matters in the region. Of the total 3,488-km-long India-China border that stretches from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh, a 220-km section falls in Sikkim, and a considerable amount falling in the northeastern region.
Earlier on Tuesday, commenting on the incident, a state-run daily in China said China must force the Indian troops to retreat “by all necessary means” and New Delhi must be “taught the rules”. “The Indian government made no objection to the Sikkim section of the China-India border. Allegations of intrusions along the western section of the China-India border often emerge, but face-offs in the Sikkim section are rare.
The entire controversy regarding the latest border dispute broke out after China’s People’s Liberation Party (PLA) destroyed Indian bunkers along the Sino-Indian border following a scuffle between Indian Army and Chinese troops in the remote areas of Sikkim. The incident which reportedly took place in the first week of June in the Lalten post in the Doka La general area in Sikkim, triggered tensions between the two countries.
The situation only aggravated when during a meeting on June 20 between the Indian Army and its Chinese counterpart, the Chinese side said that Indian pilgrims, who were on a yatra to KailashMansarovar, would not be allowed to cross into Tibet, which led to the pilgrims returning back to Gangtok, Sikkim’s capital. The Chinese claimed that a bridge had broken because of which the pilgrims could not cross into Tibet for the annual yatra. The Sikkim route to Mansarovar, which is in Tibet, was opened in 2015.