A village built by China along the Line of Actual Control in the Arunachal Pradesh sector and mentioned in a recent Pentagon report, is in territory controlled by that country, sources in the security establishment in New Delhi said on Tuesday.
The officials said Pakistani intelligence operatives have adopted the modus operandi of investing in illegal call exchanges that switch Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls to normal Indian mobile calls.
India has significantly enhanced military infrastructure, surveillance and combat capabilities along the nearly 3,500 km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China since the deadly clashes in Galwan valley in 2020, sources in the defence establishment said Wednesday on the eve of the third anniversary of the hostilities.
In another feat, Lt Jamyang Tsewang, the first commissioned naval officer from Ladakh, also successfully graduated as a qualified helicopter pilot, according to the Indian Navy.
The sources said the situation in eastern Ladakh remained 'tense' and that around 30-40 soldiers of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) are holding up at a position close to an Indian post in the Rezang-La ridgeline in eastern Ladakh.
Incessant rains unleashed more death and destruction on Monday in parts of north India, with 37 people killed in landslides and other rain-related incidents in the last two days even as the Army and NDRF teams stepped in to intensify the relief and rescue operations.
Naravane's appointment has been cleared at the highest level, adding the government has followed the principle of seniority in the appointment.
As Prabhakaran was leaving his house, Rajiv Gandhi called his son Rahul and asked him to fetch his (Gandhi's) bulletproof jacket. He put the jacket on Prabhakaran's back and remarked with his usual charming smile: "Take care of yourself."
Gen Naravane said a "befitting response" was given to the "conspiracy" to make unilateral changes on the border and that the sacrifice of the Galwan heroes in eastern Ladakh will not go waste.
Videos on social media showed protesters climbing a statue of Hasina's father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, a 1971 Liberation War hero, in Dhaka and smashing it with hammers.
Indian troops were maintaining their "posture" along the border with China while infrastructure development in the frontier areas was on track, Army Chief Gen M M Naravane said on Thursday, days after personnel of the two countries were locked in two separate incidents of violent face-offs. Gen Naravane said the incidents in Eastern Ladakh and North Sikkim involved aggressive behaviour by Chinese and Indian troops resulting in minor injuries to personnel from both the sides.
Referring to the developments in Ladakh in the wake of Chinese aggression, he said disengagement with People's Liberation Army was completed from various areas in a peaceful manner and efforts are on through dialogue for disengagement from other areas.
The current fleet of BMP-2/2Ks was first inducted into the Army in 1985 and it has been the mainstay of the mechanised infantry since then.
The army said senior commanders of the Indian and Chinese military reviewed the progress on implementation of the first phase of disengagement and discussed further steps to ensure complete withdrawal of troops in the region.
The move comes amid reports in a section of media that claimed that Chinese soldiers had displayed their flag in the region a few days ago.
The youths were handed over to the Indian Army by the PLA after completing necessary formalities, Tezpur-based defence spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Harsh Warrdhan Pande said.
Wrapping up his two-day visit to Ladakh, Gen Naravane said the Indian Army has undertaken precautionary deployment in some areas and that the force is well prepared to safeguard the territorial integrity of the country.
'There have been equal or more casualties on the Chinese side.' 'Our soldiers are hardy and strong and far superior than the Chinese.'
Hundreds of people have been evacuated to safer places in eastern Rajasthan after heavy rainfall over the past two days led to a flood-like situation in the region and severed road connectivity to many areas.
A retired Indian colonel working with the United Nations was killed in Gaza when the vehicle he was travelling in came under attack in strife-torn Rafah, the 'first international' casualty for the world body since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Army Spokesperson Colonel Aman Anand said troops from China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) 'violated' the consensus arrived at during military and diplomatic engagements on the ongoing standoff in eastern Ladakh, and carried out provocative military movements to change the status quo.
'We are ready to surrender,' Lieutenant General A A K Niazi said over the phone from Dhaka.
Reports (not denied by India) that the USA had 'for the first time provided real-time details to their Indian counterparts on the Chinese positions and force strength in advance of a PLA incursion' into Tawang at the LAC in December 2022, helping India thwart China's expansionist designs, show how operationally effective the USA-India friendship has become on the ground. A engaging excerpt from Sreeram Chaulia's must-read new book, Friends: India's Closest Strategic Partners.
'The 1971 War was our greatest military victory.' 'It had so many stories of exceptional valour and leadership.'
China and India have made 'positive progress' to resolve the border standoff, with both sides maintaining close communication through diplomatic and military channels, a senior foreign ministry official said in Beijing on Friday.
The state-run Global Times newspaper quoted the People's Liberation Army Western Theatre Command spokesperson as saying that "Indian troops again crossed the line of actual control in the Galwan Valley region and purposefully launched provocative attacks, leading to severe clashes and casualties."
The name plates of Lieutenant Colonel Dhan Singh Thapa, Colonel N J Nair, Havildar Hangpan Dada and Subedar Joginder Singh were unveiled at a ceremony in Kolkata.
The New York Times had reported that a few Indian soldiers were missing in action after the violent face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan valley.
Virtually indicting former Army chief and Union Minister Gen V K Singh, the Armed Forces Tribunal on Friday quashed the court martial of Lt Gen P K Rath who was punished for his alleged role in a land dealing in West Bengal.
'My understanding is that by the time President Xi Jinping came for the Chennai summit [2019], he had already instructed his army to undertake the action in Galwan in the summer of 2020.'
India has allocated Rs 1.72 trillion, or 27.67 per cent of the total defence budget to cater to modernisation of the country's arsenal. Modern militaries spend up to 50 to 60 per cent of their total defence budget so that they go into combat with superior weaponry and equipment.
Sources said the process of disengagement along the Line of Actual Control is "complex", and in such a context, speculative and unsubstantiated reports need to be avoided.
The talks between the two sides near Galwan Valley ended in a stalemate on Tuesday as well as Wednesday, the sources said.
The single-engine helicopter was on its way from Khirmu in Arunanchal Pradesh to Yonphula in Bhutan.
The decision to disengage the forces, locked in a bitter standoff for the last six weeks in eastern Ladakh, was taken at a nearly 11-hour-long meeting between senior Indian and Chinese commanders in Moldo on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on Monday.
Chief of the command Lt Gen Alok Kler and his deputy Lt Gen K K Repswal are at loggerheads for the past several months over the role, charter and duties of various appointments as well as on running of the command that takes care of security along the borders in Rajasthan and Punjab.
Days after a Pentagon report said Beijing built a large village in a disputed territory in the Arunachal Pradesh sector, India on Thursday said it has neither accepted any illegal occupation of its territory by China nor has it accepted unjustified Chinese claims.
The additional troops deployed on the LoC have been successful in foiling almost all the major attempts of infiltration and terrorists have not been allowed to cross over, sources said.
As per the plan, each of the theatre commands will have units of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, and all of them will work as a single entity looking after security challenges in a specified geographical territory under an operational commander.
It was for the first time that the high-level military talks on the lingering border row spanned two days.
