Fresh Chinese Intrusion at Sikkim border

The issue of Sikkim is being raised again as the Chinese troops belonging to People’s Liberation Army (PLA) reportedly entered with a vehicle up to 1 km of the 2.1 sq km of northern tip of Sikkim north of Gyangyong, which the Indian Army refers to as the Finger Area on Monday.

This was the recent transgression after ending the dispute of Line of Actual Control (LAC) when China utterly accepted that Sikkim is the part of China, but the sources from Indian forces has said that these transgressions were ‘a routine affair’ in which the PLA personnel violate India's perception of the 4,057-km long Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China.

This is a big cause of concern for India as since January India has recorded nearby 65 such efforts of incursion in Indian territories in it three sectors: western (Ladakh), middle (Uttarakhand, Himachal) and eastern (Sikkim, Arunachal), while last year Indian forces has recorded over 150 transgressions by the PLA across the border.

Earlier, Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his recent visit has raised the matter of fingertip area, which Chinese authorities have assured to solve it soon. But the continuous incursion of troops indicates that China is now willing to accept that Sikkim is the part of India, as per Chinese ambassador San Yuxi claimed last year, “In our position, the whole of what you call Arunachal Pradesh is Chinese territory.”

Then India had protested this statement on international level and the negotiations of LAC were begun, which as per Indian government assumes, has been solved to Pranab Mukherjee’s China visit.

But, recent transgression has indicating towards alarming situation for India, but Indian is adopting a diplomatic policy and trying to avoid the confrontation to China as per Union Defence Minister A K Antony stated in this regard, “We are trying to avoid confrontation. That's why the dialogue is continuing.”

Meanwhile, China has denied such type of any incursion in that area, while India is following the defensive route.

Some sources have claimed that PLA are amassing heavy military presence across the Sikkim border, which is indicating clearly that China is still assuming Sikkim as a negotiable area.