Indian Army on September 7 has asked their Chinese counterpart PLA if the 5 missing Indian civilians were in their custody. On September 4, five civilians from Arunachal Pradesh went missing. Arunachal Pradesh is an Eastern Border state.
Tensions still remain high on the Western frontier between India and China. The relation between India and China has hit the lowest since the clash at the Galwan valley. The valley is at the western Himalayan border in Ladakh. Both the sides have been stepping up their monitoring at the largely unsettled 3,488 km border.
The five civilians went missing on September 4 after they went for a hunting trip. According to locals and two eyewitnesses, the 5 civilians were abducted by the PLA troops.
China considers Arunachal Pradesh as part of their own and calls it as South Tibet.
According to sources, the Indian Army has spoken with PLA on the hotline. They told PLA that some people have crossed the border accidentally. The government will be grateful if the PLA hands the civilians over to the Indian Army.
Lieutenant Colonel Harsh Wardhan Pande stated; “There is no earmark line going through the forest as well as the mountains. So it is possible that some people may cross the border accidentally. Which is a very normal thing.”
However, the Lieutenant has still not heard from the Chinese side.
In another incident, a Tibetan member of an Indian Special Forces Unit was cremated on Monday. He died a few days ago in a mine blast. The incident took place near the site of a border flare-up with Chinese troops in the Western Himalayas. The death of the Special Forces Unit personal has provided a rare glimpse of the little known group.
