India-China border: Satellite images show creation at the site of a deadly conflict
Beijing says the deadly conflict began when Indian troops crossed into Chinese-controlled territory and tried to dismantle a tent camp set up by Chinese forces in the Galwan Valley in what is known as Patrol Point 14.
At least one analyst questioned what the images showed.
“It seems to me where someone was camping, and it looks like it was a big camp, but they dismantled it,” said Manoj Joshi, a distinguished colleague at the Observer Research Foundation, a research center based in New Delhi.
Ruser said his analysis of satellite photos showed that since May, the number of Chinese troops and vehicles within a kilometer of the border has risen from three to 46, while on the Indian side that number has dropped from 84 to 17.
Tensions continue to rise high along the LAC, despite an agreement by military leaders following the June 15 incident to ease the situation.
China said this week that India was entirely to blame for the conflict after Indian troops crossed the LAC in violation of an earlier agreement.
“It was shocking that Indian troops publicly violated the agreement, broke their own promise and crossed the LAC to provoke the Chinese side on June 15,” Wu Qian, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Defense, said on Wednesday. “When Chinese military troops arrived to negotiate, they were suddenly attacked by Indian troops, and this led to physical fighting between the two sides and caused casualties.”
The Indian Foreign Ministry reacted on Thursday by saying China had fueled the deadly conflict.
“China’s actions so far have led to rising tensions in the region, as well as a violent confrontation with the victims on June 15,” the statement said.
China has been building forces in the region for more than a month, the ministry said: “At the heart of the matter is that since the beginning of May, the Chinese side has amassed a large contingent of troops and weapons along the LAC.”
Releases released this week of Maxarve satellite photography show that China has deployed a tank company and artillery units to a campground north of Gogra. Another significant base proved to be at the Kongka crossing.
Ruser said in an analysis published before the release of the latest satellite photos that previous such photos showed that Chinese troops regularly transferred LACs to patrols on Indian territory – though not at the time of the June 15 conflict – but that reports of thousands of Chinese troops enclosed on Indian territory were are unproven.
But he noted that China, after India began establishing new positions in the Galwan Valley in May, about a thousand troops moved into the area.
Joshi said China has changed tactics in the region, from just patrolling disputed areas to capturing them.
“The Chinese now seem to be indicating that the LAC should lie down. Now it is no longer the place you patrol, but the place you hold,” he said.
The valley, part of a region endured by China as Xinjiang and India by Ladakh, is cold and inaccessible, soaked with snow with temperatures around freezing, even in summer. Located high in the Himalayas, the average altitude is 14,000 feet (4,200 meters), almost twice the height at which the disease begins, which means that any person in the area must undergo strenuous, gradual acclimatization or suffer crippled headaches, nausea and fatigue. .
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