Pak, China violated Indian airspace, LS told

"Indian air space has been violated 29 times by foreign aircraft during the period between December 2007 and November 2010. These include 23 occasions by Pakistan, thrice by China, twice by the United States and once by Bangladesh," Defence Minister A K Antony said in written reply to a query.

He said in response of these violations, Standard Operating Procedures have been laid down which also include deployment of fighter aircraft by the Indian Air Force.

"The matter is also taken up with the concerned country through diplomatic channels as per established procedure," Antony added.

Last year, two Chinese military aircraft including Mi-17 helicopters had transgressed into Indian territory and dropped food items there.

In view of such incidents, the IAF has decided to upgrade its surveillance systems along the frontiers and is in the process of deploying mountain and ground-based radars.

Answering another query, the minister said 7,322 Indian Army personnel have been deployed in seven United Nations peacekeeping missions.

The missions include UNIFIL (Lebanon), UNDOF (Golan Heights, Israel/Syria), MONUSCO (Democratic Republic of Congo), UNMIS (Sudan), UNOCI (Ivory Coast), MINUSTAH (Haiti) and UNMIT (East Timor).