Lessons from 2014 standoff in focus as commanders agree to disengage

The disengagement process during a previous border standoff in the Ladakh involved a temporary ban on Indian and Chinese soldiers patrolling disputed areas along the contested Line of Actual Control (LAC), people familiar with that border dispute said on Tuesday.

The three-week tense confrontation in Ladakh’s Chumar sector in 2014 may have lacked the aggression that has been witnessed during the current round of border tensions but it was a serious development as dominating the area where the standoff took place.

The “mutual consensus to disengage from friction areas” along the LAC, reached during a marathon meeting between senior Indian and Chinese commanders , has turned the spotlight on how disengagement works.

More than 1,000 troops Indian troops were eyeball to eyeball with an equal number of Chinese soldiers at the height of the Chumar standoff. “The soldiers from the two armies were barely five metres apart. When our helicopters dropped chocolates for our soldiers, the Chinese troops would also get some of the goodies. That’s how close they were,” said Lieutenant General (retd) DS Hooda, who was the Northern Army commander during the Chumar standoff.

The final disengagement between the troops involved two steps, Hooda said. “After the modalities for disengagement were worked out, we were successful in getting the Chinese to retreat to their camp in Chepzi, which was five km away. We moved back to our camp. It wasn’t that complicated as there had been hardly any aggression from either side. In the second step, both sides agreed to a moratorium on patrolling disputed areas to avoid face-offs,” Hooda said.

After the modalities for disengagement were worked out, we were successful in getting the Chinese to retreat to their camp in Chepzi, which was five km away.