NEW DELHI: Five years after the Doklam standoff between India and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) over the construction of a road near Bhutanese territory, fresh evidence of a fully inhabited village barely 9 km east of the previous flashpoint area has emerged, according to NDTV.
This village, which the Chinese have named Pangda, is said to lie “squarely” in Bhutanese territory. Satellite images show that the village is not only fully inhabited but most of the houses have cars parked in front of them. Also, close to Pangda is an “all-weather carriageway” which enters 10 km into Bhutan and is along the banks of the Amo Chu river.
The NDTV report, quoting army sources, said, that “continuous and seamless vigil” is maintained “on all activities along (India’s) borders, especially those that impinge upon the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation. For this, necessary mechanisms and safeguards to meet any contingencies are in place”.
The emergence of Pangda as a fully populated village is a throwback to the 2017 Doklam crisis when Indian and Chinese troops confronted each other for 72 days. At that time, the report said, Indian soldiers had prevented Chinese workers from accessing a strategic ridge – Jhamperi – adjacent to the Doklam plateau.
This ridge, the report indicates, would give an advantage to the PLA in that it would give it a “direct line-of-sight” to the Siliguri corridor or the ‘Chicken’s Neck’ which connects the northeast to the rest of India. Besides, the Jhamperi ridge indicates that the Chinese PLA now seeks to go around Indian army defences by using an alternate route to reach the feature.
Quoting Lieutenant General (retired) Praveen Bakshi, who was the Eastern Army Commander during the Doklam crisis, the NDTV report said, “Pangda village and the ones to its North and South are classic examples of the Chinese trying to establish their legitimacy over the Jhamperi ridge and the Doklam plateau”. Lt Gen Bakshi goes on to say that raising villages along the border that the PLA disputes are “essentially a manner of giving legitimacy to its territorial claims”.
The fresh satellite images, which have been sourced from Maxar, a satellite imaging service, show a fully constructed bridge at Pangda besides “foundations of six buildings here are visible”, the report said.
Damien Symon, a geospatial intelligence researcher at The Intel Lab, is quoted to have said that “the speed and development of this remote area are noteworthy, underlining how China is extending its borders uncontested”. Symon adds that “the road construction activity in this distant, isolated sector highlights efforts taken by China to ensure all-weather, uninterrupted connectivity to remote, new habitats across its frontier”.
China has been ramping up border infrastructure in several sensitive locations, including along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh where the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has been locked in an over two-year standoff with the Indian Army.
In October last year, Bhutan and China signed an agreement on a "three-step roadmap" to expedite negotiations to resolve their festering boundary dispute.
Bhutan shares an over 400-km-long border with China and the two countries have held over 24 rounds of boundary talks in a bid to resolve the dispute.
The two countries also held 10 rounds of negotiations at the 'Expert Group' level.
The Doklam tri-junction is considered important from the point of view of India's security interests.
The India-China stand-off in the Doklam plateau in 2017 even triggered fears of a war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
Bhutan said the area belonged to it and India supported the Bhutanese claim.
India had strongly opposed the construction of the road at the Doklam tri-junction as it would have impacted its overall security interests.
The India-China face-off was resolved following several rounds of talks.
(With PTI inputs)