The Indian Air Force (IAF) deployed its fighter planes on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) last week after Chinese military helicopters were seen flying close to the Indian territory.
“As soon as the movement of Chinese helicopters was picked up, the Indian fighter jets were rushed to the border areas in the Ladakh sector,” top sources in the government told India Today. The Chinese choppers didn’t violate the Indian airspace, the sources added.
Sources said this is the first time in many years that India has responded to Chinese attempts to violate air space by deploying fighter aircraft.
Last week, India and China troops were engaged in two fierce face-offs in eastern Ladakh and near Naku La Pass in northern Sikkim.
In the first incident, scores of Indian and Chinese army personnel clashed along the northern bank of the Pangong Lake in eastern Ladakh on May 5. The face-off ended next morning following a dialogue between the two sides.
A number of soldiers on both sides sustained minor injuries as they exchanged punches and resorted to stone-pelting, the sources said, adding around 200 personnel were involved in the face-off.
Both sides brought in additional troops following the fracas.
In another incident, nearly 150 Indian and Chinese military personnel were engaged in a face-off near Naku La Pass in the Sikkim sector of the Sino-India border in which at least 10 soldiers sustained injuries.
The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control, the de-facto border between the two countries.
