(TibetanReview.net, Jan20’22) – A 17-year-old boy from Arunachal Pradesh went missing on Jan 18 and Member of Parliament from the sensitive Tibet-border state Mr Tapir Gao has said Jan 19 that he was a victim of a cross-border kidnap carried out by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). However, the Indian Army has reported him as missing and asked for China’s assistance in locating and returning him in accordance with established protocol.
The boy, Miram Taron, was stated to be part of a hunting group from the local Zido village in Upper Siang district that frequented remote areas along the LAC (Line of Actual Control).
Gao has said Taron was abducted with his friend Johny Yaiying but that the latter escaped from the Chinese PLA and reported the abduction.
The alleged abduction was stated to have taken place near the Tsangpo River’s entry into India where it is known as Siang River in Arunachal Pradesh and the Brahmaputra River upon entering Assam.
The boy was stated to have gone missing in Lungta Jor, the area where in 2018 Chinese and Indian armies, as well as construction workers from China and local villagers faced off over the former’s construction of a 3-4 km road.
Ninong Ering, a Congress MLA from Arunachal Pradesh’s Pasighat West constituency, has told news agency ANI the alleged kidnapping represented “a very serious problem that has once again arisen” and that “it is unfortunate the Chinese are intruding into Indian territory”.
Earlier, in Sep 2020, Chinese PLA kidnapped five boys from the state’s Upper Subansiri District. They were released a week later, but not before the Indian Army reached out to defuse the situation.
Before that, in Mar 2020, a 21-year-old man was abducted by the Chinese from the same area, before he too was released after intervention from the Indian Army, noted the ndtv.com Jan 20.
Regarding the current incident, sources in the Indian defence establishment have said Jan 20 that when the Indian Army received information about Taron, it immediately contacted the Chinese PLA through an established mechanism of hotline, saying an individual, who was collecting herbs and hunting, had lost his way and could not be found.
Assistance from the PLA had been sought to locate the individual on their side and return him as per established protocol, reported the PTI news agency Jan 20.
