By Tendar Tsering
DHARAMSHALA, October 6: The India Army Chief has become the latest among high ranking officials in the Indian security establishment to express concern over the growing Chinese military build-up across the Indian borders.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Army Chief General V K Singh said that around 4000 Chinese, including troops from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) were active in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK).
“There are certain construction working teams (in PoK)…Around 3,000 to 4,000 of these people (Chinese) are present, including some for security purposes,” said Army Chief General V K Singh on the sidelines of a function.
Earlier in April, the Northern Indian Army Commander Lt-Gen K T Parnaik had warned New Delhi about PLA troops actually being stationed along the volatile 778-km-long Line of Control (LoC) between India and Pakistan.
“It poses military challenges to India not only along the Sino-Indian border but also along the LoC. And we hear many people today who are concerned about the fact that if there were to be hostilities between Pakistan and us what would be the complicity of the Chinese. Not only because they are in the neighbourhood but the fact that they are actually stationed and present on the LoC,” said Lt-General K T Parnaik at a public seminar in Jammu.
Following multiple reports of military build-up across the Indian border, Indian Defence Minister A K Antony, last month told reporters that India was “concentrating on modernising its own capabilities” while conceding that China was “aggressively building its capabilities along the Line of Actual Control.”
Reacting to the Army Chief’s admission, India’s major opposition party, the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) today said that “the Manmohan Singh government should wake up and discuss this issue with China.”
“This is a very serious issue. The government should review its policy towards China,” BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain told reporters in Delhi.
A major Indian daily had reported Tuesday that China was intensifying its military focus on the north eastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh with the PLA crossing the perceived Line of Actual Control (LAC) on multiple occasions this year alone.
