"Bereft Of Facts": Army Slams Reports Of Deadlock Over Patrolling In Ladakh

Dismissing reports that military talks between India and China on the modalities of patrols have reached a deadlock in eastern Ladakh's Depsang, the Indian Army has said no roadblocks or objections have been faced and termed the articles "speculative and bereft of facts". 

In a post on X on Thursday, the Additional Directorate General of Public Information of the Army said some reports on Wednesday and Thursday had speculated about roadblocks in the disengagement process in Depsang and Demchok after an agreement between India and China last month.

"It is unambiguously stated that the disengagement at Depsang and Demchok has been completed and implementation of consensus, as agreed to, is being undertaken in a planned manner that includes resumption of patrolling to traditional patrolling areas. There are no roadblocks/objections from either side that have been faced in this process," the Army said.

It also cautioned the concerned media houses to authenticate facts on sensitive issues to ensure no misleading information is published,

"The articles published in this regard are speculative and bereft of facts. The concerned media houses are requested to verify and authenticate facts before publishing such sensitive articles and exercise due editorial discretion so that no unsubstantiated or misleading information is propagated," the post said. 

On October 21, India had announced that a patrolling agreement had been reached for the two contentious areas of Depsang and Demchok and the troops would return to the positions that existed before the stand-off between the two countries began in 2020. The disengagement process included the dismantling of structures and the restoration of the land on which they stood to their original condition. 

"We reached an agreement on patrolling, and we have gone back to the 2020 position. With that, we can say the disengagement with China has been completed... There are areas which, for various reasons after 2020, they blocked us, we blocked them. We have now reached an understanding which will allow patrolling as we had been doing till 2020," External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had said. 

The disengagement process was completed last month and the Army and the government had said last week that patrolling has begun in both Depsang and Demchok.