NEW DELHI: Army has kicked off full-scale patrolling at Demchok in eastern Ladakh, while it will soon follow suit in Depsang Plains after initial patrols in the area verified that People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had completely dismantled its temporary structures and pulled back its troops to pre-April 2020 positions.
The patrolling is being conducted after informing PLA in advance as per the terms of the Oct 21 pact on “patrolling arrangements”, which led to disengagement in the remaining two of the seven major face-off sites that arose after multiple Chinese incursions into eastern Ladakh in April-May 2020.
“Our patrols now have full unrestricted access to the five patrolling points (PPs) in Depsang and two in Demchok, which was earlier blocked by Chinese soldiers. PLA, too, has begun its own patrols with prior information to us to prevent the possibility of any clash,” a defence source told TOI on Friday.
As part of the initial patrols, Indian soldiers went up to PP-10, 11, 11A, 12 and 13 in Depsang Plains for the first time in almost five years through the “Bottleneck”, an area around 18km inside Indian territory which had been blocked by PLA.
“The patrols at Depsang and Demchok will be determined by our operational requirements and tasking,” the source said. The longer duration patrols with more distance to cover will have 20-25 armed soldiers, while the shorter ones will have 10-15 soldiers.
Depsang, a table-top plateau at 16,000 feet, is part of India’s vital Sub-Sector North, which includes the Daulat Beg Oldie airstrip, and strategically located near the critical Karakoram Pass in the northernmost part of eastern Ladakh. China claims almost all the 972 square km of territory in the Depsang Plains, where both sides have vast overlapping claims.
“Depsang, where tanks can operate, is far more impo rtant than other areas like Pangong Tso in eastern Ladakh. It is the only place where our PPs fall short of our perception of LAC. In other places, the PPs are almost bang on LAC,” another source said.
At the Charding Ninglung Nallah track junction near Demchok in the south, Indian troops will now access two important PPs, while villagers can also go to their traditional grazing grounds there. “Troops will be able to patrol till Charding La, which is over 19,000 feet,” the source said.
After “stabilisation” at Depsang and Demchok, India’s focus will shift to the restoration of patrolling rights in areas where “no patrol buffer zones” were established after previous rounds of disengagements till Sept 2022. These buffer zones at Galwan, north bank of Pangong Tso, Kailash Range and the larger Gogra-Hot Springs area, largely came up on what India considers to be its territory.