Chinese People’s Liberation Army personnel entered Barahoti area in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on July 19 even though the two countries had agreed to observe the area as a demilitarised zone. The Union home ministry has sought a detailed report from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, the force that guards the Sino-Indian border, on the latest incident of a Chinese incursion into Indian territory.

The incident came to light when a joint team of the civil administration and ITBP, led by the Chamoli district magistrate, went to the Barahoti grounds to conduct a survey. “The Barahoti ground is a huge plot of land where, as per agreement, no activity is carried out by either side. It is normally used by tribals to graze their animals. The Indian team was sent back by the Chinese troops camping there who claimed it was Chinese territory. In fact, even our ITBP personnel in the team were in civvies and not in uniform,” a home ministry official said.

Sources said this was not the first time that Chinese troops had been spotted in the region and that in the past air violations had also been reported from the area. Discussions have been going on between the two countries as nearly 80 sq km of the land in Barahoti area is said to be disputed. The two countries had agreed not to send armed troops into the region till a final agreement was reached and ITBP personnel have never entered Barahoti area while bearing arms. But shepherds from both sides were allowed to enter the area with their livestock.

The Chinese troops, sources said, vacated the area almost an hour after the Indian team had left. But ITBP officials claimed that the Chinese troops do take unfair advantage of the agreement and often send armed troops for “occasional patrolling”’ in the region, which they recognise as “Wu-Je”.

Talking to this newspaper, Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat said: “A team of state revenue officials had visited that area for official reasons and noticed a lot of activity by Chinese troops near the border. Now these are areas that did not see much troop deployment in the past. So, accordingly, I had voiced my concern. I had also said that a particular canal had not been touched by the Chinese and also that the Central agencies, including the Army, are in the know.”

Meanwhile, Army source said: “Transgressions continue to happen along the LAC on account of differing perceptions of the border. In the current Barahoti incident, a small detachment of PLA (not more than four-five) came across our patrol in the area. The incident was handled as per mutually agreed drills. The incident did not last more than a few minutes.”

ITBP officials said they were already seized of the matter and, following the incident, a through security review of the 350-km India-China border in the state was carried out. The ITBP has sent a preliminary report to the home ministry and a detailed one is to follow after a thorough investigation.