ITBP chief says China face-offs ongoing along Arunachal, Congress attacks PM

The remarks by ITBP Director General Shatrujeet Kapur mark the first official confirmation of ongoing face-offs on the north-eastern border in Arunachal between Indian and Chinese troops.

In Short

• ITBP DG says confrontation with China taking place at multiple sites
• Praises Shaurya commandos during face-offs with China
• Congress questions PM Modi's silence over Arunachal tensions

The DG of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has said confrontations with Chinese troops were continuing at multiple locations along the Arunachal Pradesh border. It marks the first official confirmation of ongoing face-offs on the north-eastern border in Arunachal, where the situation has grown increasingly tense in recent months.

ITBP Director General Shatrujeet Kapur said the face-offs have been ongoing since July, when reports emerged that Chinese troops were denying Indian forces access to key patrolling points along the LAC in the Taksing area. "In the past few days, a situation arose where a face-off happened at several locations in Arunachal, and it continues," Kapur said at an annual felicitation ceremony for ITBP personnel.

It suggests that the military friction persisted through the BRICS Summit in New Delhi, which was attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping in September.

WHAT ITBP DG SAID ON ARUNACHAL BORDER FACE-OFFS?

The ITBP chief, however, said the force's Shaurya commandos performed "exceptionally well" during the confrontations. "Our newly raised Shaurya commandos played an exemplary role in this," he said. The Shaurya commandos specialise in high-altitude warfare.

The ITBP, raised in 1962, guards the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China.

"ITBP was raised as a mountain guerrilla force, and we were given border guarding duty along China in 2004," Kapur said. "We need not leave our original function," he asserted.

Admitting that China was the "most difficult" front, the ITBP DG said the force had raised drone platoons in all its border units, prepared a specialised combat training program to better handle Galwan-like situations and was creating underground infrastructure.

The border in Arunachal Pradesh has seen heightened tensions in recent months.

In July, a fact-finding team of the People's Party of Arunachal (PPA) suggested that PLA troops were effectively blocking India's access to designated patrolling points in Taksing. It also flagged increasing Chinese activities in the Upper Subansiri district.

The PPA is a regional political party that has two MLAs in the Arunachal assembly. The government, however, had rejected the claims, while strictly maintaining that Arunachal is an "inalienable" and "integral part of India".

CONGRESS QUESTIONS PM MODI'S SILENCE

The issue was vehemently raked up by the Congress, which sought responses from PM Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju told India Today that there had been no new Chinese occupation in Arunachal Pradesh. However, he acknowledged concerns raised by locals over access to certain grazing areas near the border.

The fresh remarks by the ITBP DG have given the Congress ammo to attack the BJP government. In a hard-hitting post on X, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh questioned the "deafening silence" of PM Modi on tensions in Arunachal.

"While the self-styled Vishwaguru's calibrated concessions to China continue, the DG, ITBP, has lauded - and rightly so - its performance in recent face-offs with the PLA in Arunachal Pradesh, on which there has been a deafening silence from the PM and his establishment," Ramesh tweeted.

He also questioned the outcome of the Corps commander-level talks held in September to maintain peace along the LAC. It was the first highest military commander-level flag meeting in the Arunachal Pradesh sector.

"Locals had reported that patrolling points had been lost once again, as in Ladakh. China continues to rename our towns in Arunachal Pradesh and is building a 60,000-MW dam that threatens our ecological and water security," Ramesh said.

Overall, it suggests India and China are entangled in another border dispute after the standoffs in Doklam and eastern Ladakh. It remains to be seen how both sides tackle the issue amid an uptick in India-China ties.

- Ends