A meeting scheduled Thursday of the Indian government's China policy group amid reports of increased incursions by Chinese troops across the border has been postponed, news reports said.The meeting called by National Security Advisor MK Narayanan was put off due to the hype over the incursions in the media, NDTV news channel reported, citing government sources.
The meeting in New Delhi was to have been attended by top defence, home and foreign ministry officials along with chiefs of the three armed forces and intelligence agencies. India has been downplaying recent media reports of incursions by Chinese troops across the border in the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir and firing across the disputed boundary in eastern Arunachal Pradesh.
The meeting was expected to take stock of plans to upgrade infrastructure and construction of roads in border areas in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir. The two Asian countries share a 3,500-kilometre border, largely along the Himalayan mountain range, and much of it is unmarked and disputed.
India on Tuesday termed as "factually incorrect" a report in the Times of India newspaper that two troops of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police were injured in firing by Chinese troops across the border in Arunachal Pradesh. The Times of India also reported that the People's Liberation Army of China had crossed into India six times since January, according to field posts of the Indian Army.
China claims 90,000 square kilometres of Arunachal Pradesh as its territory and recently objected to India allowing the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, to visit the region. The Dalai Lama, who escaped to India in 1959 after the Chinese occupied Tibet, is scheduled to visit Tawang, a monastery town in Arunachal Pradesh, in November. "Arunachal Pradesh is a part of India and the Dalai Lama is free to go anywhere in India," Foreign Minister SM Krishna told IBN7 television channel Wednesday. "The only question is that he is not expected to comment on political developments," Krishna said.
The Indian Army had mobilised troops to forward posts in Jammu and Kashmir and the north-eastern border with China as a part of an exercise named Operation Alert, the IANS news agency quoted a top defence official as saying. But the unnamed official also said the exercise was an annual feature. India and China, which fought a short war in 1962, have held 13 rounds of negotiations to resolve border disputes.