Taksing groups renew China incursion claims after ITBP chief's remark

Community groups from Taksing in Arunachal Pradesh's Upper Subansiri district have renewed their call for the Centre to act on what they describe as Chinese incursions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), Deccan Herald reported on Monday.

"Ask the government, what has been done. We have been saying so for long," Keru Chader, president of the Nah Welfare Society, told the paper. The society represents the Nah tribe, who live in the Taksing circle at over 7,000 feet.

What the groups say

In June, the society told the Upper Subansiri deputy commissioner in a memorandum that China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) was gradually moving into what it called Indian territory near Taksing, and had built roads, bridges and camps at places local people traditionally used for grazing, hunting and gathering forest produce.

Tadak Nalo, chairman of the Arunachal Frontier Tribal Front (AFTF), told Deccan Herald that border villagers know where the traditional boundary lies because of old barter and cultural links with Tibet. He alleged that incursions increased after the Covid period in the Taksing, Gelemo and Maza areas, and said there is still no road on the Indian side from Taksing to the LAC, about 15 to 20 km away.

Officials have denied the claims

The claims were rejected when they first surfaced. State home minister Mama Natung called them lies and social media rumours, the Indian Army called reports of PLA encroachment baseless, and Union minister Kiren Rijiju, the Lok Sabha MP for the area, also dismissed them. The All Arunachal Pradesh Students' Union later hoisted the national flag at Taksing on Independence Day in solidarity with troops there, and the opposition People's Party of Arunachal sent a fact-finding team.

Why it has come up again

The groups say their case was strengthened on October 22, when then ITBP chief Shatrujeet Singh Kapoor, speaking at an event in Alwar a week before he retired, referred to face-offs between Indian and Chinese troops at several places in Arunachal Pradesh. After the remark, the Ministry of External Affairs said the border situation is disturbed from time to time when Chinese forces depart from "established patrolling patterns", and that both sides use existing diplomatic and military mechanisms to resolve issues. Chief Minister Pema Khandu has since described such incidents as "transgression, not intrusion".

The Centre has not responded to the groups' latest demand. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as "South Tibet", a claim India rejects.