India-China face-off continues near Arunachal’s Taksing, reveals ITBP chief in first official confirmation of tensions

‘Face-offs’ with Chinese troops are continuing at several locations along the border in Arunachal Pradesh, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) director general Shatrujeet Kapur said on Thursday (Oct 22), the first official confirmation of how widely tensions have spread on the northeastern frontier since July.

"In the past few days, a situation arose where face-off happened at several locations in Arunachal and it still continues," Kapur said.

Shaurya commandos in the thick of it

Speaking at the Himveer Samman Samaroah, the force's annual felicitation ceremony held at the Central Training College in Alwar, Rajasthan, Kapur said that ITBP commandos have been in the midst of ongoing confrontations.

"Our newly raised Shaurya commandos played an exemplary role in this. ITBP was raised as a mountain guerrilla force, and we were given border guarding duty along China in 2004," he said.

He added that the force does not intend to abandon its original role and that a specialised high-altitude mountain-fighting unit, distinct from the army, is being raised. "We will soon have one full battalion of Shaurya commandos; high-altitude deployment is our strength."

India building underground shelters near China border

Kapur said a decision has been taken to build as many underground shelters as overground ones along the China border over the next three years. "Underground shelters are key to new warfare. Anything overground can be a target. In hot-war situations, underground shelters are a priority," he said.

Pilot projects are under way at all companies, with the aim of permanent defences that are comfortable, with adequate bathrooms, ventilation and drainage. Once a design is finalised, every border outpost will carry an equal number of overground and underground structures within three years.

Chinese tents near Taksing?

Citing Government sources, The Hindu reported that India and China have been locked in a stand-off at Asaphila near Taksing since late July. People's Liberation Army troops have reportedly pitched tents at an elevation within 6 to 7 km of India's perception of the Line of Actual Control, close to the Maja company operating base in Taksing circle of Upper Subansiri district.

The sequence, as described by a report: Indian and Chinese troops came face to face near Maja during routine patrolling sometime in July. Both sides pulled back after a brief confrontation, but the PLA returned in larger numbers a few days later and set up tents. India has since increased its own deployment.

The stand-off has persisted through diplomatic activity. Chinese President Xi Jinping attended the 18th BRICS Summit hosted by India from September 11 to 13, and the two countries have held three high-level border talks since July: the 36th WMCC meeting on August 6, the 25th round of Special Representative talks in Beijing on August 26 with National Security Adviser Ajit Doval representing India, and the first-ever Corps Commander-level meeting in the Eastern Sector on September 6, at the Vacha-Damai Border Personnel Meeting Point in Arunachal Pradesh. Such meetings had largely been held at Chushul-Moldo in eastern Ladakh, especially since the Galwan clashes of June 2020.