Farmer leaders on Monday started their day-long hunger strike against the Centre's new farm laws and said protests will be held at all district headquarters later in the day, even as more people are expected to join the ongoing agitation at Delhi border points.
Chinese troops have been camping in the Finger area for over three months now and have even started fortifying their bases there with construction of bunkers and sangars.
AFSPA confers special powers on the armed forces in areas deemed as disturbed.
'(The) PM has surrendered Indian territory to Chinese aggression. If the land was Chinese: Why were our soldiers killed? Where were they killed,' he asked on Twitter, tagging the prime minister's remark.
The shelling from across the border started in Nowshera sector around 12.30 pm, ending over 12-hour-long lull in the border skirmishes which intensified after India's pre-emptive strikes on Jaish-e-Mohammed's terror camps at Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan on Tuesday.
In the second instance of ceasefire violation within 24 hours, Pakistani troops resorted to small arms firing on a Border Out Post
The sources also said both the Indian and Chinese troops are firmly holding on to their respective positions at the Line of Actual Control.
The United States will continue to support India with equipment and other things it needs along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China, a top American admiral has told lawmakers, asserting that Washington and New Delhi share a 'tremendous partnership'.
Some of the farmers allegedly tried to block Khattar's motorcade but police managed to provide a safe passage to the chief minister, sources said.
'This is not the first time that a large contingent of Assam armed police led by senior officers attacked and destroyed farm huts, crops and plantations of Mizo farmers.' 'There have been a series of such intrusions in the past and the pace of such intrusions increased in the recent past.'
China said that after this incident both sides are in communication and coordination on the matter through diplomatic and military channels.
In his remarks, Admiral Singh complimented his force for continuously maintaining 'peak combat-readiness' and 'high tempo' of operations over the past few months, they said.
Colonel Ajay Kothiyal, Kirti Chakra, Shaurya Chakra, is one of the most decorated soldiers to join politics. He still has two bullets lodged inside his body sustained in a gun battle with terrorists in J&K.
Shelling and firing by Pakistani troops was "very heavy" in 2019, virtually making the 2003 India-Pakistan border truce "redundant", officials said.
As cracks began to appear in their ongoing agitation against the agri laws, farmer unions on Wednesday cancelled their planned march to Parliament on February 1 when the Budget would be presented.
Chinese military has also deployed a sizeable number of its troops in Galwan Valley, the site of the violent clashes on June 15 that left 20 Indian soldiers dead.
There was no comment from the Indian side on the statement made by the Chinese defence ministry spokesperson Colonel Wu Qian, and carried by China's official media.
Farmer leader Darshan Pal accused the Centre of dividing farmer organisations, but it will not happen.
The visit is also aimed at boosting morale of the army personnel engaged in the seven-week bitter border faceoff with the Chinese troops in the region, sources added.
'The PLA is under constant watch.' 'There is an escalation matrix. For every degree of escalation, responses are thought of and trained for.'
The high-level talks came a week after 20 Indian Army personnel were killed in a violent clash between the two sides in Galwan Valley.
During the meeting, top security officials briefed the home minister about the prevailing situation in the country, including along the Indo-Pak border, a home ministry official said.
'The focus on countering terrorism brings to the issue Beijing's non-serious approach in this regard. India's permanent representative at the UN has raised in vain the issue of funding and the release of 26/11 suspect Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi. But China has blocked these objections since December 2014 at the UN even after 'highest levels' in India intervened,' notes Srikanth Kondapalli, reviewing the India-China military exercises in Kunming.
People familiar with the situation in the region said the two sides were engaged in trying to resolve the dispute, but there was no indication of a positive outcome yet as both the armies continued to bolster their positions in disputed areas of Pangong Tso and Galwan Valley and Demchok.
'Me and my boys had never ever thought in our wildest dreams that we would be taking part in a rescue mission of this kind.' IAF Veteran Air Commodore Nitin Sathe, a helicopter pilot himself, reports on how the air force rescued those trapped in the Deoghar cable cars disaster last fortnight.
The MEA said it was the Chinese side that recently undertakook activities hindering India's normal patrols in the areas.
They said the Indian Army has further bolstered its presence around the Southern Bank area of Pangong lake by deploying additional troops and bringing in more weaponry including tanks and anti tank guided missiles.
Come ill-health, physical discomfort or family occasions, the men keep up the cheer and ensure their physical limitations don't cloud their optimism and their will to win the fight.
The commanders will also deliberate on the overall situation in Jammu and Kashmir besides delving into issues having national security implications, they said. However, the main focus will be on the situation in eastern Ladakh where Indian and Chinese troops are locked in an eyeball-to-eyeball face-off in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie, the sources said.
We are ready to talk but will not accept any condition now," said a farmer's leader.
China on Thursday said Chinese and Indian troops have taken "effective measures" to disengage at the Galwan Valley and other areas along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh and the situation is "stable and improving," days after the two sides agreed on an expeditious withdrawal of soldiers from all the standoff points.
A high-level meeting of the Committee of Secretaries decided that the celebrations must be participated by at least 1,000 central paramilitary force personnel at each locations in ensuring the 'grandeur' of the event across the country.
A Border Severity Force jawan deployed along the Indo-Pakistan border was captured by Pakistani forces early on Wednesday after he was swept away by a strong current of the Chenab river in Jammu and Kashmir.
'I had emphasised this during our meeting with the PM.' 'Given our location, I had warned that there is a sensitivity involved as this is a frontier state.' 'The atmosphere around us is not conducive. But who listens?'
In terms of casualties, Friday's fire at the commercial building was the largest since the blaze at a factory in the Anaj Mandi area and the second largest since the Uphaar Cinema tragedy in 1997.
A Delhi Police head constable, Ratan Lal, was among the nine killed in the violence that erupted on Monday over the amended citizenship law.
Exercising self-defence is a nation's primary right when a situation demands 'immediate and proportionate action' and applies also to attacks by non-state actors, India told a United Nations meeting, highlighting several proxy cross-border and state-supported terrorist attacks like the 26/11 Mumbai assault the country was subjected to from its neighbour.
Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait on Saturday asked the Centre to explain to farmers why it does not want to repeal the three farm laws, while promising it that they 'will not let the government bow its head' before the world.
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of the farmer unions protesting the three farm laws, said emergency and essential services such as ambulance and school bus will not be stopped during the 'chakka jam' that is proposed to be held between 12 pm and 3 pm.
Addressing the Congress Working Committee, the president of the party said, ""Misfortunes do not come singly. India has been hit by a terrible economic crisis, a pandemic of huge proportions and, now, by a full-blown crisis on the borders with China. Much of each crisis is attributable to the mismanagement of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government and the wrong policies pursued by it."
