New Delhi: The government and Air Force
on Tuesday insisted that there had been no incursion by Chinese nor
any firing incident on Sikkim border in which two ITBP jawans
were injured as claimed by a media report.
The Prime Minister`s Office also denied that National
Security Adviser M K Narayanan had convened a high-level
meeting on Thursday to discuss Chinese incursions.
"A media report about two ITBP jawans having been
injured due to firing (by China) from across the Line of
Actual Control (LAC) has come to notice. The report is
factually incorrect," External Affairs Ministry spokesman
Vishnu Prakash said in a statement here.
The report had claimed that the ITBP jawans were
injured when Chinese troops fired at them in Kerang in
northern Sikkim about a fortnight ago.
ITBP too denied the occurrence of any incident. "The
reported incident that two jawans of ITBP were injured by
bullets fired from the Chinese side was false...No such
incident of firing has taken place in north Sikkim on
India–China border and no member of ITBP has been injured," an
ITBP statement said.
Another media report suggested that two Chinese fighters
had transgressed into Indian airspace last month, which was
dismissed by IAF as "far-fetched and imaginative".
IAF spokesperson Wing Commander T K Singha said there
had been no unscheduled flight inside Indian air space. "We
will react if there is any unscheduled flight noticed and
picked up on our radars," he said.
NSA convenes meet of China Study Group
Apparently concerned over
repeated incursions by Chinese troops, National Security
Advisor M K Narayanan has convened a meeting of top officials
including Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar and Secretaries
of Defence, Home and Foreign Ministries.
The meeting of the China Study Group has been called to
take stock of the situation along the Sino-India border,
official sources said here tonight.
Besides Chandrasekhar, the meeting will be attended by
Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar, Home Secretary G K Pillai,
Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao.
Top officials of the three armed forces and the
Intelligence Bureau will also attend the meeting.
The meeting comes in the wake of recent reports of
incursions by the Chinese army in Ladakh, including air
dropping of expired food canes, painting of rocks red among
others.
Another media report said that two Chinese Sukhoi
fighters had transgressed into Indian air space last month.
Indian Air Force, meanwhile, insisted that there had been
no unscheduled flight inside Indian air space last month.
"It is far-fetched and imaginative," IAF spokesperson
Wing Commander T K Singha said while commenting on the media
report.
"We will react if there is any unscheduled flight
noticed and picked up on our radars," he said.
Bureau Report
