MEA takes up teen’s torture with China

NEW DELHI: India on Thursday said it has taken up with China the issue of torture of a teenager from Arunachal Pradesh when he was in the custody of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

“We have taken up the matter with the Chinese side,” Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs said at a media briefing.

He was replying to a question on the matter. Miram Taron, 17, was allegedly abducted by the

Chinese army on January 18 from Lungta Jor area near the Line of Actual Control in Arunachal Pradesh when he was on a hunting trip with his friend Johny Yaying. Yaying managed to escape from the scene and report the matter to the authorities.

The Chinese army handed over Miram to the Indian Army on January 27 at the Wacha-Damai interaction point at Kibithu in Anjaw district.

Miram’s father Opang Taron said his son was tied and blindfolded while in the custody of the PLA and that he was kicked and given mild electric shock.

Asked about Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s allegations in Parliament on Wednesday that the Modi government brought Pakistan and China together, Bagchi refused to comment saying External Affairs Minister S

Jaishankar has already reacted to them.

“The external affairs minister’s tweets are self-explanatory. He had issued a series of tweets after the discussion in Parliament. I do not have anything to add to them,” Bagchi said.

Following Gandhi’s comments, Jaishankar said he needs some “history lessons”.

“Perhaps, some history lessons are in order: In 1963, Pakistan illegally handed over the Shaksgam valley to China. China built the Karakoram highway through PoK in the 1970s,” Jaishankar tweeted.

PLA HANDED OVER MIRAM TO THE INDIAN ARMY ON JANUARY 27 AT THE WACHA-DAMAI INTERACTION