Patil denies Chinese intrusion

Guwahati, May 9 (UNI) Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil today denied any Chinese intrusion in Aruanchal Pradesh.

Speaking to mediapersons in the Asom Assembly, where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh submitted his nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha elections, Mr Patil described as the reports ''untrue''.

Both the Indian Army and the Arunachal Pradesh government refuted state BJP MP Karen Rijiju's claim of recent Chinese intrusion in Tawang area of the state.

Sources in the Army said the claims made by Mr Rijiju about the alleged intrusion were baseless. They said the areas which he had been referring to were occupied by China in 1959, three years before the Sino-India War.

''No fresh Chinese incursion has taken place since 1996 and that both sides are adhering to the 1993 Border Peace and Tranquility Agreement (BPTA) and the 1996 Border Agreement, '' Army sources from the 3 Corps said.

Earlier, Mr Rijiju claimed that Chinese forces had moved 20 km inside the state and had built a helipad in the Tawang area. The state government had also refuted the claims and termed them ''incorrect''.

''There is absolutely no truth in the reports of any Chinese intrusion. The allegations are unfounded,'' Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu said.

The The Defence Ministry also refuted media reports that an inquiry had been ordered to verify the claims. Sources in the Ministry said it had asked the Army to present a statement on the issue.

The two countries have different perceptions about the border.

Experts, however, said, '' Differences are purely of a technical nature. The contours used by both the countries for the demarcation of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) do not have the same intervals.

This leads to the absence of sharp demarcation in some places. That is why in the late 1980s the Chinese moved the border a few km in Tawang. '' China, too, dismissed the allegations as ''groundless'' of an incursion by its troops into the state, stressing the Sino-Indian boundary remained peaceful.

''It is groundless, '' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu said in Beijing.

UNI