A research paper submitted by senior IPS officer P D Nitya, Superintendent of Police Leh-Ladakh, claims that India has lost its presence in 26 of the 65 Patrolling Points (PP) in Eastern Ladakh.
These PP, patrolled regularly by the Indian Security Forces, are lost due to “restrictive or no patrolling”.
“Presently there are 65 PPs starting from Karakoram pass to Chumur which are to be patrolled regularly by the ISFs. Out of 65 PPs, our presence is lost in 26 PPs; 5-17, 24-32, 37, 51, 52, 62 due to restrictive or no patrolling by the ISFs. Later on, China forces us to accept the fact that, as such areas have not seen the presence of ISFs or civilians since long, the Chinese were present in these areas.
This leads to a shift in the border under the control of ISFs towards the Indian side and a “buffer zone” is created in all such pockets which ultimately leads to the loss of control over these areas by India. This tactic of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to grab land inch-by-inch is known as “Salami slicing”,” the report said, according to Indian Express.
The research paper was submitted at last week’s the annual All-India Conference of Director Generals/Inspector Generals of Police in Delhi.
The paper reveals that the PLA has taken advantage of the buffer areas in the de-escalation talks by placing their best cameras on the highest peaks and monitoring the movement of our forces.
“This peculiar situation can be seen at Blacktop, Helmet top mountains in Chushul, at Demchok, at Kakjung, at Gogra hills in Hot springs and at Depsang plains near Chip Chap river,” the report said.
The Indian Army, according to the report, has placed many restrictions on the movement of civilians and grazers near the forward areas on the Indian side, indicating their ‘play safe’ strategy that they do not want to annoy PLA by giving them the chance to raise objections on the areas being claimed as disputed.
Nitya concludes by stating that given the domestic compulsions of CPC (Covid-19, protests, etc) in China and their economic interests in the region, PLA would continue to build up its military infrastructure and skirmishes would also get frequent which may or may not follow a pattern.
 in Eastern Ladakh.){kind=link}