India playing 'safe' on China border: Paper at DGP meet

India has lost access to almost half of the patrolling points (PP) on the border with China in eastern Ladakh while the Army is adopting a "play safe" strategy not to annoy their Chinese counterparts is turning once accessible areas into informal buffer zones and thus losing control, according to one of the research papers submitted in the annual police chiefs' meet here recently.

The paper written by Superintendent of Police (Leh) PD Nitya said Beijing was forcing New Delhi to cede control of the land to the neighbour using the 'Salami Slicing' strategy. This was one of the 15 papers on 'Security Issues Pertaining to Unfenced Border' but was not taken up for discussion at the meeting.

Read | Tawang Clash: India's remote, undefined Himalayan border with China

It said the Indian Army has placed many restrictions on the movement of civilians and grazers near the forward areas on the Indian side, "indicating their play safe strategy that they do not want to annoy the People's Liberation Army (PLA) by giving them a chance to raise objections on the areas being claimed as disputed".

"Presently there are 65 PPs starting from Karakoram Pass to Chumur which are to be patrolled regularly by Indian Security Forces (ISF). Out of 65 PPs, our presence is lost in 26 PPs (i.e. PP No 5-17, 24-32, 37, 51, 52, 62) due to restrictive or no patrolling by the ISFs. Later on, China forces us to accept the fact that, as such areas have not seen the presence of ISFs or civilians for long, the Chinese were present in the area," it said.

"This leads to a shift in the border under the control of ISFs towards the Indian side and a buffer zone is created in all such pockets which ultimately leads to the loss of control over these areas by India. This tactic of the PLA to grab land inch-by-inch is known as Salami Slicing," the paper added.

Emphasising that the PLA has taken advantage of the buffer areas in the de-escalation talks by placing their best cameras on the highest peaks and monitoring the movement of Indian forces, it said this peculiar situation can be seen at Black Top, Helmet top mountains in Chushul, at Kakjung, at Gogra Hills in Hot Springs and at Depsang plains near Chip Chap river.

Read | Veterans on India-China border row

With the 'Salami Slicing' strategy, it said, they object to Army's movement even in the buffer zone claiming it to be their area of operation and further ask it to move back to create more buffer zones.

"This has happened with Y nullah at Galwan where we were forced to Galwan where we were forced to move back to Camp 01 without dominating the higher posts at Chushul the BPM hut near the airfield has become the de-facto LAC and Nilung Nallah at Demchok has been restricted," the paper said.

The paper also warned that the extreme harsh climate, difficult terrain and remoteness of the area affect the morale and motivation of the jawans and officers on the ground which only reminds them to start the reverse countdown of their deployment time and each unit would want to complete their tenure and return back to plains.

"In a longer duration, they do not see the utility to defend barren acres of land when no population and no economic activity is being carried out, therefore the onus is on us to keep up their motivation and morale high," the paper added.