New Delhi: A group of Indian soldiers, armed with their rifles slung upside down on their back, riding on ponies, carried out their first patrolling in the Depsang Plains on Monday since 2020.
Sources in the defence and security establishment told ThePrint that the group, about a section strength (10 to 12), crossed over the bottleneck area mid-morning, which opens into the Depsang Plains.
The soldiers were accompanied by ponies. Sources said that Indian troops patrolled up to Patrolling Point (PP) 10.
Though there are PP 10, 11, 12, 12A and 13 in the Depsang Plains, it was decided that only one or two PPs would be patrolled. The idea is to take it slow and build up confidence about each other, the sources said.
They said that after crossing the bottleneck area, the soldiers reached Y junction from where they did the patrol to PP 10, covering a distance of about five kilometres.
The sources, however, did not comment on whether there was any in-person interaction with the Chinese troops.
They said that patrolling was done according to the agreement reached by both sides and that the Chinese were made aware that the patrol was on its way.
The patrol came back early afternoon, the sources said.
While Indian soldiers did enter the Depsang Plains to carry out joint physical verification of the Chinese pullout last week, this is the first official patrol carried out by their own troops since 2020.
As reported by ThePrint in October, India and China disengaged from the two face-off points of Depsang Plains and Demchok in eastern Ladakh, pulling back troops to the pre-2020 positions and also dismantling all check posts, defensive positions and housing and shelters created in the last four-and-a-half years.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
Also read: India-China disengagement completed at Depsang & Demchok, patrolling to start after Diwali