New Delhi: Exactly two months after a set of political leaders in Arunachal Pradesh claimed that the Chinese army had intruded into India and built a two-km-long road in Bishing village of Arunachal Pradesh’s Anjaw district, satellite images procured through open source intelligence handles have supported it.
In July, BJP state president and Lok Sabha MP Tapir Gao, and Gisho Kabak, the state president of the Nationalist People’s Party (NPP), told local media that the road was constructed by the Chinese in the village in the Tuting sub-division of Upper Siang district. Being an MP from the area, Kabak urged Gao to raise the issue in parliament.
In a press statement issued by NPP on July 6, it said, “It is a matter of serious concern that no official from either the state or the central government visited Bishing village to assess the incident till date. Their timely visit would have boosted the morale of the villagers who reside close to the international border.”
On September 4, Gao also shared on social media a video clip that featured a newly-constructed wooden bridge built over a steam, identified as Kiomru Nallah in the district’s remote Chagalam area. Gao claimed it was built by the Chinese army after entering about 25 km inside India, and some local youth noticed it on September 3.
Also read: BJP Arunachal MP Claims Chinese Army Intrusion
The state BJP leader told reporters, “As a representative of the state, I have requested the Centre for development of infrastructure along the Sino-Indo border in Arunachal Pradesh, like construction of a road between Hayuliang, the district headquarters of Anjaw, and Chaglagam and beyond.”
However, on being contacted by TV channels and other media, the army categorically denied it. A press statement said, “There has been no such incursion. The area being referred to in the media report on ‘some electronic channels’, is the area of Fish Tail. There is differing perception of the alignment of the Line of Control, as in many other areas. The terrain is thickly vegetated and all movements are undertaken on foot along Nalas and stream. During monsoons whenever the Nalas are in spate, temporary bridges are constructed by the patrols for their movement.”
It further said, “Being an area of differing claims, troops routinely from either side patrol the area. In addition, civilian hunters and herb collectors also frequent here during summer months. It is reiterated that there is no permanent presence of either Chinese soldiers or civilians in the area and surveillance is maintained by our troops.”
On September 7, Abjijit Iyer-Mitra, an expert on security issues, in an article in The Print, backed Gao and Kabak’s claims with the help of independently acquired satellite images.
Though Iyer-Mitra said he found “no discernible evidence of intrusion in the Chaglagam region of the state”, however, based on help from various open-source intelligence, or OSINT, handles, “what we ended up detecting is far more serious: not only have the Chinese intruded in the northern region at Bishing about 175 km from Chaglagam, but they have also built a road approximately 1 kilometre deep into the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control. This road enters from the east where the border runs north-south, and runs parallel to the east-west orientation of the border.”
The Wire has written to the office of the defence PRO for eastern region at Kohima for a response, which will be added if or when it comes.
Meanwhile, Gao told The Wire that he felt vindicated about what he has been saying. “My question is, if the Chinese didn’t build that wooden bridge in Chaglagam, then who did it? There are no Arunachalee villagers there. If it didn’t build that road in Bishing, then who did it? The bigger point I am making is, let’s not just take it lightly. We have seen 1962 and recently Doklam too. There should not be any Doklam in Arunachal.”
Iyer-Mitra said in his article that there was “a high probability that the road construction project is about creating facts on the ground”.
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He pointed out, “What are ‘facts on the ground’? Basically when a border is disputed, the creation of population centres or infrastructure essentially forces a border to be redrawn. Assume for example that China agreed in 2015 that the LAC as is was the border, the fact that they have created infrastructure 1km west and 300 meters south into Indian territory, while India has nothing in the region, would mean that China will essentially insist the LAC be moved south of its constructed infrastructure. This is how Israel also lays claim to much of the West Bank — by creating infrastructure (and population centres) to muddy the border.”
In June 2017, there was a standoff between the Indian and Chinese armies in Doklam in Sikkim along the tri-junction between India, China and Bhutan over a construction of a road by the Chinese. Tension escalated between the two nations for over a month of stalemate. In August, both governments announced that they would withdraw their forces from the site.