INDIA/CHINA: Is ITBP Jawans injured with Chinese bullets?
Posted by barunroy on September 15, 2009

FROM HAALKHABAR.COM

As per a national media source, bubbles strains along the mountainous frontier with China appear to have become serious with a revelation that two jawans of the Indo – Tibetan Border Police, the sentinel force along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), were injured in bullets fired from the Chinese side.

‘The firing in an area identified as Kerang in northern Sikkim took place a fortnight ago but has been kept under wraps. It was confirmed on Monday by a highly-placed intelligence source, who is not authorised to give information to the media. ITBP officials at its headquarters in New Delhi declined to confirm the incident’, newspaper mentioned.

It was the first incidents where bullets have been fired since the landmark 1996 Sino-India agreement in which both sides pledged not to open fire, no matter what the provocation, as a part of confidence-building measures.

Sources cite this as yet another instance of China’s maintaining pressure on the 2.1 sq km area of `Finger Tip’ in northern Sikkim. Last year, China had sent a vehicle-mounted patrol into this area, penetrating 1 km into Indian Territory. The Kerang shootout prompted an unscheduled border personnel meeting on August 30.

Also last week, the entire situation along the LAC was reviewed in a war game by the Eastern Command top brass in Kolkata’s Fort William, Eastern Command HQs, in the presence of Army chief General Deepak Kapoor.
Violations aren’t new but have rarely involved casualties. What is alarming is the report of shooting along the LAC which has remained peaceful for decades since the Chinese invasion of 1962.

In contrast, the Kerang incident could be a significant and dangerous deviation from the practice of talks before bullets.

Despite ceremonial border personnel meetings (BPMs) at Nathu La in Sikkim and Bum La and Kibithu in Arunachal, Chinese troops continue to violate the LAC with brazen regularity, mentioned in news.