NEW DELHI: A Chinese soldier, apprehended after transgressing to the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC), has been handed back to China on Monday.
According to the army, "The People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldier who had been apprehended on 08 January 2021, has been handed back to China at Chushul- Moldo at 10.10 am today."
The People's Liberation Army soldier was apprehended during early hours of January 8, on the Indian Side of the LAC, in Ladakh area, South of Pangong Tso lake.
This was second such case, in about three months, that a Chinese PLA soldier 'transgressed' on the southern bank of Pangong Tso. Otherwise, both sides have been in communication only through the hotlines established at various locations and the crossing of LAC takes place only after informing each other.
The cases of transgression, after May 2020 standoff, have been focused to the South Bank side of Pangong Lake in the Eastern Ladakh. It was after the Indian Army took heights on the South Bank of Pangong Tso that the entire dynamics of standoff of the Eastern Ladakh had changed completely.
Since August 2020, Indian soldiers are deployed on the hill peaks giving advantage of keeping an eye on every move deep inside the Chinese side. The Chinese tried to push the Indian Army soldiers back but the ground situation remain unchanged. In the ensuing process even bullets were fired in air by the soldiers of both countries.
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As reported first by The New Indian Express, Chinese soldiers had clashed first at Finger 4 in the first week of May, 2020 before deployment of PLA troops at multiple points along LAC in Eastern Ladakh.
At present troops from either side are deployed along the LAC since friction erupted last year due to unprecedented mobilisation and forward concentration by Chinese troops.
The first such transgression from Chinese side took place on October 20, 2020 and a Chinese PLA Corporal Wang Ya Long was apprehended in Demchok, the Indian side of the LAC, south of Pangong Lake.