India to redeploy cameras along LAC to watch Chinese troops

The Indian army is planning to put back a surveillance camera in the Chumar area along the Line of Actual Control to keep an eye on the movement of the Chinese troops, which had reportedly taken away a similar device last month.

The camera was said to have taken away by the Chinese side on June 17 when it had become non-functional and was returned to the Indian side on July 3 there after a protest was registered. It was used to keep an eye on the movement of the Chinese army troops in that area. The surveillance camera would be put back there for the same purpose, highly-placed sources told PTI in New Delhi.

Such cameras have been put up at several places along the LAC and Indian troops sitting in their posts can keep an eye on the PLA troops, they said.  The particular camera in Chumar area was used several times by the Indian side to monitor and intercept the PLA patrols in the areas claimed by the Indian side as its territory, sources said.

India and China have been working towards signing a border pact to maintain peace and tranquility along the LAC where a number of incursion incidents have been observed in the recent few months.

A defence ministry official said that during Defence Minister A K Antony's meetings with the Chinese leadership, the broader issue of incursion and other incidents were raised but no specific incident was highlighted.

Chinese troops last month intruded into the Chumar sector in Ladakh -- the same area, which had sparked off tensions in April -- and smashed some bunkers besides cutting wires of cameras installed at the border post.

Chumar, located 300 km from Leh, has always been an area of discomfort for the Chinese troops as this is the only area along the China-India border where they do not have any direct access to the LAC.