Ten days after they crossed the border during an expedition to hunt and collect medicinal herbs, five young men from Arunachal Pradesh were returned to India on Saturday by Chinese authorities, Indian army officials confirmed.
“The Indian Army took over the five people in Kibithu on September 12, 2020 after completing all the necessary formalities,” Lt. Col. Harsh Wardhan Pande, PRO (Defense) based in Tezpur in Assam, said in a statement.
“People will now be quarantined for 14 days according to the Covid-19 protocol and then they will be handed over to their relatives,” he added.
Union sports minister and BJP deputy from Arunachal West Kiren Rijiju tweeted: “The 5 young Indians from Arunachal Pradesh who were received in Kibithu by our PLA Army are fit and well. However, they will be quarantined for a specific period. ”
According to the army, this was the third case of youths from Arunachal Pradesh living near the Indochina border who inadvertently drifted to the other side of the royal line of control (LAC) during “adventurous raids”.
“The Indian Army has always been proactive in tracking down lost locals and helping them return home. Three such incidents took place in the current year in Upper Subansiri and West Siang district, including the last one, ”the statement said.
“All of these people were safely returned home after constant efforts and coordination by the Indian military in the past,” he added.
The 5 young men from the Tagin tribe, who used to work as porters for the Indian army, had reportedly disappeared on 2 September from Sera-7 in the Upper Subansiri district on the Indian side of the McMohan Line that forks Arunachal Pradesh and the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). from China.
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After his disappearance, a brother of one of the missing youth posted on social media that they had been “kidnapped” by the EPL. Tapir Gao, a BJP MP from Arunachal East, and the MLA Congress from Pasighat Ninong Ering made the same accusation in their tweets.
In response to a hotline message sent by the Indian Army, the People’s Liberation Army reported Tuesday that the youths had been found on the Chinese side and that their condition was fine.
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The disappearance of the youths and the accusation of their “kidnapping” by the EPL had added to the greater tension between the two countries.
On Monday, the Global Times, affiliated with the state of China, tweeted quoting the spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Zhao Lijian. “China has never recognized the so-called ‘Arunachal Pradesh’, which is China’s southern Tibet region, and we still have no details on the question about sending the message from the Indian Army to the PLA about five Indians missing in the region.”
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