GUWAHATI: Amid claims of intrusion by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), a delegation of the All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU) on Thursday set out for Taksing in Upper Subansiri district to assess the ground reality.
A “fact finding committee report” of the People’s Party of Arunachal (PPA) said reports of the intrusions on the ground were found to be “inexplicable yet irrefutable”.
The AAPSU’s “Taksing Chalo, Bharat Bachao” march will culminate on August 15 with the hoisting of the national flag.
The student organisation, in a statement, said concerns repeatedly raised by residents of remote border villages deserved urgent attention from both the Arunachal and Central governments. It insisted that the safety, security and welfare of border inhabitants must remain a national priority.
By undertaking the march, the AAPSU aims to assess the prevailing situation in the border areas, express solidarity with the frontier population, highlight the concerns and aspirations of border residents, urge authorities to strengthen border infrastructure, security and development initiatives, and reaffirm the commitment of the people of Arunachal towards safeguarding the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation.
The PPA fact finding committee report stated that an educated youth narrated an incident relating to Shera 5 Point, a patrolling point in Indian territory that has remained abandoned since 2023, where Chinese soldiers and Arunachal Scouts had physical confrontations with each other.
“…The Chinese PLA came back, destroyed and dismantled the symbolic remains of the Indian patrolling troops at Shera 5 Point and since then, the Indian patrolling armies have been denied access to the Point by the Chinese PLA. This is one of the most thought provoking incidents of how the Chinese intrusions into Indian territories are given shape in the border regions,” the report said.
It further stated that Nanga Pahar, once considered the ancestral hunting and yak rearing areas of Arunachal’s Nah and Mara communities inhabiting the region, has now been turned into a “strictly prohibited zone for the local denizens giving advantage to the PLA to push forward their encroachment activities towards Indian sides”.
“While the ground reports of the Chinese intrusions were found to be inexplicable yet irrefutable, the nature of Chinese intrusions have been reported to be well calculated, gradual and persistent with the same modus operandi being repeated over the years,” the report said.
Earlier, the Indian Army had dismissed as “incorrect and without any basis” the claims of border residents about Chinese PLA intrusion. Last week, Chief Minister Pema Khandu stated that he would verify the claims with locals as well as Indian Army officials.