India will not leave from its territory along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), a top government functionary told CNN-News18 on Tuesday, against the backdrop of a skirmish with Chinese troops at the border in Arunachal Pradesh last week.
“We have a claim on all parts we are patrolling. Our claim will remain as it is on every inch we are patrolling,” said the government functionary. “We will not move back and will fight.”
The Indian Army had on Monday said Indian and Chinese troops clashed along the LAC in the Tawang sector on December 9 and the face-off resulted in “minor injuries to a few personnel from both sides”.
The government functionary told CNN-News18 that the Arunachal matter is over for now but further escalation can’t be ruled out.
“We will resolve these issues diplomatically. We will talk militarily and diplomatically both. Our soldiers fought well and a perfect reply was given. We maintain that their claims are wrong and we will continue to patrol our areas. We don’t see any full-scale war happening on this issue,” the government functionary said.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh told Parliament on Tuesday that no Indian soldier died or suffered any serious injury in the clashes. “In this face-off, few soldiers on both sides suffered injuries. I would like to tell this House that none of our soldiers died or suffered any serious injury. Due to the timely intervention of Indian military commanders, PLA soldiers have retreated to their own locations,” he said in the Lok Sabha.
According to an intelligence analysis, there could be a couple of reasons behind China’s actions: Xi Jinping is domestically on the back foot as he was forced to relax the stringent Covid curbs in the country after a massive protest. Also, the Northeast is vulnerable because the terrain here is very uneven; as the presence of Indian troops is low in many areas, China understands that if it can manage to gain a foothold there, it can cut this off from the rest of the world soon.
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