After the scuffle between the Chinese People\u2019s Liberation Army troops\n and Indian troops along the LAC in North Sikkim which led to injuries \non both sides, China appears to be continuing on the path of \nbelligerence towards India, this time along the Line of Actual Control \nin Ladakh.
\nIn what appears to be a multi-front deliberate ploy by China to \nkeep India on its toes the Indian Air Force was forced to rush its \nfighter jet patrols in Ladakh after Chinese military choppers were found\n to be flying close to the Line of Actual Control. This incident \nhappened last week, around the same time the PLA troops and Indian army \nforces came to blows in the upper reaches of North Sikkim.
\n\u201cThe Chinese military helicopters were flying very close to the Line of \nActual Control. After their movement was picked up, the Indian Air \nForce fighter jets flew patrols in the area,\u201d government sources told \nANI here.
\nGovernment sources who requested anonymity due to knowledge of frontline\n operations, informed that the Chinese choppers did not cross the LAC \ninto Indian territory in that particular area, they said.
\nThe Indian Air Force frequently flies its Sukhoi 30MKI fighter aircraft \nfleet from Leh air base in Ladakh along with other planes.
\nThis latest development comes soon after the Indian security \nestablishment noticed that Pakistani Air Force increased its patrols of \nF-16S and JF-17s along its Eastern Border with India, especially night \nsorties, after the Handwara terror attack that led to the death of \n5 Indian security personnel. A fear of retaliation by Indian forces was \ncited as the reason by Indian security establishment sources for this \nramping up of PAF air patrols.
\nThe Indian Air Force has two main bases in the Ladakh union territory \nincluding the Leh and the Thoise airbase where fighter jets are not \ndeployed permanently but detachments from combat aircraft squadrons are \noperational throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There have been several occasions in the past when Chinese military \nhelicopters have entered Indian airspace in the Ladakh sector and \ndeliberately left behind tell-tale signs to stake claim on areas which \nare part of India. The LAC in this location, like in other parts of \nthe India-China border in the country, is poorly demarcated, hence \nincursions sometimes are inadvertent as well.
\nHowever, the scuffle with Indian troops in North Sikkim was a new front \nopened up by China which was a cause for concern. Ever since the \noutbreak of Covid-19, Chinese President Xi Jinping is under immense \npressure to increase transparency in his country and reveal the real \norigin of the virus, which some have speculated emanated from a lab \nin China\u2019s Wuhan. Trade wars with countries like USA and Australia have \nintensified and most multi-national companies have actively begun \nlooking for manufacturing alternative,India being one such preferred \ndestination.
\nSecurity sources speculated that this could be the reason behind China\u2019s\n new aggression. Similar muscle flexing was also seen recently when PLA \nNavy boats entered into disputed waters in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After the scuffle between the Chinese People\u2019s Liberation Army troops and Indian troops along the LAC in North Sikkim which led to injuries on both sides, China appears to be continuing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4044","post","has-post-thumbnail","category-latest-news","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}