Fresh skirmish between Indian & Chinese troops, warning shots fired
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Representational purpose, India Army personnel at Leh: Image credit: PTI
New Delhi : India and China indulged in a fresh skirmish at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh where the militaries of both countries fired warning shots in the air to scare and push back each other.
The incident took place near Shenpao mountain close to the south bank of Pangong Tso (Lake) on Monday.
China issued a statement 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 "counter-measures to stabilise the situation on the ground".
"India's actions seriously violated the relevant agreements and agreements between China and India, pushing up regional tensions and easily causing misunderstandings and misjudgments," China stated.
The statement said it is serious military provocation and is of very bad nature.
"We request the Indian side to immediately stop dangerous actions, immediately withdraw cross-line personnel, strictly restrain front-line troops, and strictly investigate and punish personnel who fired shots to ensure that similar incidents do not occur again," said Chinese People's Liberation Army's Western Theater Command, Colonel Zhang Shuili in a statement.
Sources in the Indian Army stated that China resorted to firing in air to scare their patrol.
The Indian Army's official statement is yet to come.
India and China are engaged in a four-month-long standoff at the LAC in Eastern Ladakh. Despite several levels of dialogue, there has not been any breakthrough and the deadlock continues.
On June 15, at least 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese troops were killed in a violent clash in the Galwan Valley.