Info sought on Line of Actual Control sensitive: MoD in Lok Sabha

The government on Friday refused to confirm whether the Army faced restrictions in patrolling certain points on the Line of Actual Control, as suggested in a paper presented recently during a heads of police meet. Replying to a question of Bharat Rashtra Samiti MP G Ranjith Reddy, the defence ministry in a written reply said in the Lok Sabha, "the in formation sought is sensitive in nature and cannot be divulged on the floor of the House in the interest of national security."

Reddy sought to know if dozens of papers have been submitted by DGPs and IGPs in the recently concluded conference conducted by the Intelligence Bureau on the Chinese influence and its impact on security. ET, on January 24,was the first to report on the papers. In one of the papers, it was stated that "26 out of 65 patrolling points were not being patrolled or there was restrictive patrolling by Indian Security Forces" along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China in Ladakh. "There is restrictive patrolling by Indian forces between patrolling points 5-17, 24-32, 37, 51, 52 and 62," it noted.

The document was among the 192 papers submitted by IPS officers compiled in three volume compendiums. "China occupies areas that have no presence of Indian forces or civilians since long. This has led to a shift in the border under the control of the Indian forces towards the Indian side and a buffer zone has been created in all such pockets which ultimately leads to loss of control over areas by India. The faceoff theatre with Chinese were mainly in Sikkim and Arunachal while Ladakh was generally more peaceful. But now, a new strategy is the need of the hour," the paper had said.


Citing restrictive patrolling by India forces, one of the papers said, "The Ladakh district administration and security forces would easily patrol till Karakoram Pass in the DBO sector till September last year..."