'Jawans not allowed to use force to stop China incursions'

Defence personnel posted at the Line of Actual Control were not being allowed to use force against repeated Chinese incursions in Jammu and Kashmir's Ladakh area, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader claimed on Monday.

"Our forces at the border are saying they are not getting permission to use force to thwart appropriately the incursions and illegal moves by the Chinese. BJP demands immediate protection to the border villages of Ladakh and if needed use of force by our security forces," BJP Member of Parliament and spokesperson Tarun Vijay told reporters.

Chinese incursions in Ladakh have increased in the wake of China's Defence Minister Gen Liang Guanglie five-day India visit, he claimed.

Describing the Indian government's silence on this issue as 'baffling', he demanded that India take up this issue with the Chinese and strongly oppose it. He claimed that Chinese armed forces put pressure on Indian border villages not to unfurl the tricolour at Demchhok, near the LAC.

"Instead the villagers were asked on Independence Day to unfurl the flag in a hall near Indo Tibetan Border Police post, at a distance from the LAC," Vijay said. Development work in the border village of Koyul in Leh has also come to a halt as a result of it, he claimed.

"The surprising silence of defence and home ministries in this regard is mysterious," Vijay said, adding that the deputy commissioner of Leh had written to the divisional

commissioner, Srinagar, who in turn requested the home ministry to intervene in the matter, but no action has been taken.