Depsang, Demchok troop pullout to be taken up with China: Lt Gen Dwivedi
Army’s Northern Command chief Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi on Tuesday said disengagement of troops at Depsang and Demchok in eastern Ladakh were pending with China and they shall be taken up at the 17th corps commander-level meeting between the two armies.
On November 12, the Indian Army chief General Manoj Pande had said that the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China in eastern Ladakh was “stable but unpredictable”. Addressing mediapersons on Poonch Link up Day celebrations at Poonch, the Northern Command chief said that both the countries reached a particular agreement at the 16th corps commander-level meeting.
“The 16th corps commanderlevel meeting took place somewhere between June and July and that time we reached a particular agreement. In September, we could actually execute with lot of ground understanding between the two divisional commanders and that is why nearly 15 issues were resolved. Now out of all the issues, we are looking at disengagement followed by de-escalation,” he said.
On defence minister Rajnath Singh’s recent statement about retrieving PoJK vis-à-vis army’s preparedness, he said defence minister’s statement was a parliamentary resolution and, therefore, there was nothing new in it.
‘300 terrorists active in J&K’
He said that a total of 300 terrorists that included 82 Pak terrorist and 53 local militants were active in J&K. He said the total figure also included around 170 unidentified militants.