Indian Army’s Demchok mission completed

The Indian army on 6 November 2016 successfully completed its task of laying an irrigation pipeline in the Demchok region of Eastern Ladakh despite a three-day face-off with the Chinese troops over the construction work.

The project was being conducted under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to link the villages in the region with a hot spring.

About Chinese Protests

•    The Chinese troops tried to put up a fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP) hut to obstruct the laying of the pipeline.

•    Chinese claimed that as per their earlier agreements, no construction was allowed on the border, a claim refuted by the army, which countered it by saying that the agreements only applied to defense constructions.

•    The Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police thwarted the Chinese attempts by fortifying the area and preventing them from further entering into Indian Territory, leading to a three-day face-off.

•    The face-off ended on 5 November 2016 and the work of laying the pipeline by army engineers continued for about a kilometer and finally hit completion on 6 November.

Demchok is the first instance when the Chinese soldiers have come deep inside the Indian Territory to protest against an ongoing construction project.