China and India have accused each other of firing on their flashpoint Himalayan border in a bid to escalate military tensions between nuclear-armed Asian rivals.
Relations between the two countries have soured since a hand-to-hand clash in the Ladakh region on June 15 in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed.
Experts fear the latest incident could intensify months-long tensions between Asian giants that erupted in late April.
Beijing’s defense ministry accused India of “military incitement”, saying troops crossed the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the western border area on Monday and “fired to intimidate Chinese border defense patrol officers.”
Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu reported from Beijing that, according to the Chinese side, Chinese troops had arrived in India for negotiations and then they say some Indian troops fired on the Chinese side.
“As a result, the Chinese military said it was forced to take countermeasures – although we do not know what these countermeasures are, or if there have been any casualties,” he added.
India denies the violation
New Delhi prepared to give its account, accusing Chinese border forces of “clearly violating agreements” and running “a few rounds in the air” to intimidate Indian rivals.
The Indian Army said in a statement on Tuesday that the PLA was carrying out “aggressive maneuvers” in violation of the agreement.
“Despite serious provocations, (our) soldiers exercised extreme restraint and behaved maturely and responsibly,” the statement said.
Al Jazeera’s Elizabeth Puran reports from New Delhi that, according to India, “The Chinese army was trying to stop at a position in India – and that was it [China] Dissatisfied by their own soldiers, they fired into the air.
The countries fought a short border war in 1962, but, officially, no shots have been fired in the area since 1975, when four Indian soldiers were killed in a surprise attack.
A Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) spokesman did not elaborate and did not report any casualties, urging India to investigate the incident.
China’s western military command said the attack on Tuesday was known as Shenpoushan in China, near the southern shore of Pengong Tso Lake. On the Indian side, the area is known as Chushul, where the local military commanders of the two countries held several rounds of talks to reduce the tense standoff.
Zhang Shuili, a spokesman for the PLA’s Western Theater Command, said India had violated the agreement reached by the two countries and warned that their actions could “easily lead to misunderstandings and misunderstandings”.
India has deployed thousands of troops since the deadly border clash in June [File: Danish Ismail/Reuters]
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Indian troops crossed the LAC illegally and were the first players to shoot. “This is a serious military provocation,” spokesman Zhao Lijian told a daily news conference in Beijing on Tuesday.
Late last month, India said its troops had thwarted tight military action, violating consensus in past attempts to break the role of “changing stability”. In return, China also accused Indian troops of crossing established lines of control.
Last month and Monday, the activity was alleged to have taken place in the Chushul area on the south bank of Pangong Lake, a glacier that is divided by the lake’s border and where it began in early May on its northern border opposite India-China. .
Both sides have sent thousands of troops to the disputed Himalayan border, which sits at an altitude of more than 1,000,000 meters (13,500 feet).
His troops have suffered a number of setbacks since the June 15 clashes. China has also acknowledged that it has suffered casualties but has not provided figures.
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Detailed border protocols for peaceful dispersal from the June clashes seem to have been broken. The Indian military is also reported to have changed its engagement rules by allowing soldiers to carry guns.
Military commanders and diplomats have held several rounds of talks since July to reduce tensions, but little progress has been made to calm border tensions.
Last week, the countries’ defense ministers held talks in Moscow during an international meeting – the two sides later released rival statements accusing each other of inflaming the shutdown.
And an Indian minister earlier this week said New Delhi had warned China that five men had been abducted near the disputed border in the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh for the allegations.
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