Sikkim standoff:
India spots Chinese intelligence gathering ship
The Sikkim impasse continued with the Indian Navy reporting an increase in activity of Chinese vessels in the Indian Ocean region. The Navy has learnt that an intelligence gathering ship, Haiwingxing, was spotted in Indian Ocean last month after the impasse in Sikkim began.
There is a face off between India and China after the latter tried to build a road in the sensitive Doklam, a disputed region between China and Bhutan. This is one of the longest show downs between the two countries after the 1962 war.
Meanwhile the Indian Army maintained that no bulldozers were used when its bunkers were destroyed by the Chinese army amid the current standoff with China in the Sikkim sector.
The Army however denied that this is the longest stand off since 1962. An Army spokesperson said, “the incident is not the longest standoff between the two nations.”
The spokesman also said that no bulldozers were “ever employed” for destroying the Indian bunkers and that no physical scuffle had occurred between the personnel of Indian Army and the People's Liberation Army(PLA). A senior government functionary had earlier said that bulldozers were used to destroy the Indian bunkers.
The spokesman also claimed that no such incident ever happened on June 6 and referred to a statement made by the Ministry of External Affairs in which the date of incident was mentioned as June 16.
The spokesman went on to clarify that “Indo-China relations as also the relationship between both the armies are extremely well managed by a host of mechanisms.
“The MoD (Ministry of Defence) or the Indian Army has neither issued any official statement nor has undertaken any unofficial briefings due to the fact that such sensitive issues are best dealt between two nations away from the media glare,” the spokesman said.
He said that in this situation “as some of the acts have happened involving Bhutan, therefore, Ministry of External Affairs has already given a substantial briefing on the issue.”
