India has lost presence in 26 out of 65 patrol points in Ladakh: Report

India has lost access to 26 out of 65 Patrolling Points (PP) in eastern Ladakh, according to one of the research papers submitted at last week’s annual police meet in Delhi, accessed by The Hindu.

According to the research paper, PD Nitya, the Superintendent of Police of Leh, Ladakh’s main city, wrote, “Presently there are 65 PPs (Patrolling Points) starting from Karakoram pass to Chumur which are to be patrolled regularly by the ISFs (Indian Security Forces). Out of 65 PPs, our presence is lost in 26 PPs (i.e. PP no. 5-17, 24-32, 37, due to restrictive or no patrolling by the ISFs.”

The report was filed at last week’s annual conference of the country’s top police officers in Delhi, attended by Modi, Amit Shah and Advisor Ajit Doval.

“Later on, China forces us to accept the fact that as such areas have not seen the presence of ISFs or civilians since long, the Chinese were present in these areas. This leads to a shift in the border under control of ISFs towards Indian side and a “buffer zone” is created in all such pockets which ultimately leads to loss of control over these areas by India. This tactic of PLA (China’s People’s Liberation Army) to grab land inch-by-inch is known as ‘Salami slicing’,” NDTV reported quoting the research paper.

“PLA has taken advantage of the buffer areas in the de-escalation talks by placing their best of cameras on the highest peaks and monitoring the movement of our forces… they object our movement even in the buffer zone, claiming it to be ‘their’ area of operation and then further ask us to move back to create more ‘buffer’ areas,” the report quoted the officer further saying.