Shaksgam Valley is part of India, China will have to give it back
China has now gone ahead and to provoke India has constructed a military road in a part of India which was in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir close to the Siachen Glacier but ceded to China by the Pakis. The road has come just around 40 km from the Line of Control in Siachen. The MEA spokesperson reiterated India’s stand on it, that Shaksgam Valley is an integral part of India.
Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on Thursday reaffirmed that Shaksgam Valley is a part of India, adding that India has registered protests against China over illegal attempts to alter facts at the Shaksgam Valley.
This Shaksgam valley was illegally handed over to China by Pakistan, itself in illegal possession of Indian territory. India has never accepted this China-Pakistan Boundary Agreement.
“We have never accepted the so-called China-Pakistan Boundary Agreement of 1963 through which Pakistan unlawfully attempted to cede the area to China, and have consistently conveyed our rejection of the same. We have registered our protest with the Chinese side against illegal attempts to alter facts on the ground,” he added.
The spokesperson reiterated that India reserves the right to take necessary measures to safeguard its interests.
“We have been protesting as and when required, we have always taken a very strong stand on it,” Jaiswal said.
China in order to pose a military threat to India has now invested in the construction of military infrastructure in the Shaksgam Valley. This could in the foreseeable future pose a military threat to Indian forces in Ladakh,, especially when India decides to take back PoK, using force if necessary.
Though in a way it is welcome because then the problem of Chinese Occupied Ladhak too will come to the fore and the Indian Army will have no option left but to liberate not only AskaiChin, Shasksagam Valley but also get freedom restored to the Tibetan people.
In the last several years, China has tried its best to make futile incursions across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh but got badly whacked in the Galwan Valley where it lost 40 soldiers as killed and another 40 got wounded.
China’s incursions attempts were strategically planned to make a permanent Chinese presence in these areas but has upset its plan. Earlier India had just one Infantry Brigade aspart of 3 Infantry Division in Ladhak Sector facing China. Then came up 14 Corps with 3 Infantry and 8 Mountain Division and an independent armoured brigade.
After Galwan two Divisions have permanently moved into this Corps Zone. Very soon elements of a Tibet specific Strike Corps should also be moving into the area. Even the airbases in Ladhak namely Leh, Thoise, Kargil, Daulat Beg Oldi and Nyoma have been upgraded to enable operations by SU30 MKIs and Rafals.
Border transgressions and incursions are well documented in all three sectors of the 3,488 km long Line of Control that India officially holds against Chinese incursions across the Indo Tibetan border. However, far more sinister military aggression has been underway in Pakistan-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoK) in Shakshagam Valley and of course the Chinese Road and Belt initiative through Paki Occupied Gilgit and Baltistan.
The China-Pakistan concert on the boundary in the Karakoram area of PoK (covering a distance of over 590 km) violates India’s traditional and legal rights in PoK. China has now gone a step ahead and developed military infrastructure and roads in the disputed region, presenting a clear ground for India to implement the Parliament’s resolution on PoK.
