NEW DELHI: The Indian military has alerted China of allegations that five men were abducted by the People's Liberation Army from an area near the disputed border, a minister said Sunday, amid rising tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

The relationship between the Asian giants has deteriorated since a clash in the Ladakh region on June 15 in which 20 Indian troops were killed. India's Minister of State for Minority Affairs Kiren Rijiju, who is also a lawmaker from the isolated border state of Arunachal Pradesh, said a military hotline meant to defuse border tensions had been activated over the possible kidnapping.

"The Indian Army has already sent hotline message to the counterpart PLA establishment at the border point in Arunachal Pradesh. Response is awaited," he tweeted. Police in the northeastern India state told local media they were investigating claims made on Facebook by a purported relative of one of the men that the PLA had kidnapped them. The Arunachal Times reported Saturday that the men were hunting when they were allegedly snatched. It was not immediately clear when they might have gone missing.

The alleged incident comes amid talks between India's Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Chinese counterpart General Wei Fenghe on the sidelines of an international meeting in Moscow.