(TibetanReview.net, Jan11’21) – Amid continuing tense standoff with China along its ladakh border with occupied Tibet, India has on Jan 10 handed back a People’ Liberation Army soldier it had caught on its side of the border on Jan 8, reported Indian media Jan 11.
China earlier claimed its soldier had gone “astray” “due to darkness and complicated geography” and demanded his immediate return.
India, on the other hand, said the PLA soldier, who “had transgressed across the LAC and was taken into custody”, was “being dealt with as per laid down procedures and circumstances under which he had crossed the LAC are being investigated.”
The Chinese soldier was caught in an area South of Pangong Tso lake, an area of friction in the standoff between troops on the two sides of the border that continues since May last year.
He was handed over to China at Chushul-Moldo on Jan 10 morning, reported tribuneinda.com Jan 11.
This was the second time a soldier of the Communist Party of China, which also serves as the army of China’s party-state, made incursion into India’s Ladakh region since Oct 19 and was handed back to China.
There have been eight rounds of military talks at the Corps Commander level to find a solution to the standoff but the deadlock continues, noted indiatoday.in Jan 11.