China betrayed friendship, says Farooq on reported Chinese incursion

JAMMU - China had “betrayed the concept of friendship”, union minister Farooq Abdullah has said amid reports of “incursions” into Indian territory in Jammu and Kashmir’s Ladakh region.

China has betrayed the concept of friendship despite the fact that the Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao had promised friendship during his visit to India, Abdullah said on the sidelines of a function in Jammu Sunday night.

Those hopes have been belied by the incursion of Chinese troops into the border area of Leh, the minister said, replying to a question on reports of incursion by Chinese troops and halting of work at Demchok, close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC), in October last year.

He said China should desist from all such acts. “India too will show its strength once the winter is over.”

Abdullah, the minister for new and renewable energy and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, had visited Leh Sunday to review reconstruction work undertaken in the aftermath of the devastating cloudburst and flash floods there in August last year.

He said China should desist from all such acts. India too will show its strength once the winter is over.

A newspaper, Greater Kashmir, published simultaneously from Jammu and Srinagar, has published an interview of Chering Dorjee, former chief executive councillor of Leh Autonomous Hill Development Council, quoting him as saying that Demchok villagers were scared and had fled their homes.

Currently, many villages in Demchok are empty as there is no security provided to the residents to save them from the haunting shadow of the Dragon, Dorjee said. Recently, I along with some administrative officials went to Demchok. But the entire community has left from some villages there.

He said Demchok residents are now living in Koyul area of Ladakh.

During my interaction with residents there, I was told that the Chinese army harasses them regularly and nobody is providing them security, the newspaper quoted Dorjee as saying.

The worried residents are feeling insecure. They said nobody is securing them from Chinese soldiers and that is why they have fled from the villages.

Dorjee also alleged that the residents of Demchok had complained to the army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) posts about the Chinese incursions, but they turned a blind eye towards the grave issue”.

I also came to know that a hydrotherapy centre there has been barred for Demchok residents, Dorjee said. The hydrotherapy centre is now used by Chinese soldiers. They take a bath there and leave. They do not allow the residents to use it.

Dorjee alleged that the ITBP is not doing anything to stop the problem. The Chinese soldiers barge into Indian territory and issue orders. Our army instead of taking action against the PLA (Chinese army) restricts us from our areas.