China increasing its footprint in the POK: Indian Army

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ISI has re-activated terrorist training camps in PoK

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Indian Army has confirmed that around 4,000 Chinese, including the troops of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), are in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK).  Army Chief General VK Singh on Wednesday confirmed presence of Chinese Army in POK. His observation comes amidst growing concern in India about China’s increasing footprint in the POK. This is

“There are certain construction working teams, a large number is available. Around 3,000 to 4,000 of these people are present including certain people for security purposes. There are certain engineer troops. Now (like) our own engineers are combat engineers. So, in some way they are part of the PLA," the Army chief told reporters on the sidelines of the 16th Field Marshal KM Cariappa Memorial Lecture delivered by NSA Shivshankar Menon.

India has already conveyed its concerns to China over the presence of its troops in PoK and its activities in that region. Last year, there were reports of presence of about 11,000 Chinese troops in Jammu and Kashmir's Gilgit-Baltistan region held by Pakistan. Beijing, however, said there was no wrong-doing.

Chinese are mainly engaged in construction activities of highways and dams in PoK as well as the Northern areas which are very close to the Line of Control (LoC). The Chinese presence in Gilgit-Baltistan and the Northern Areas is increasing steadily. China is involved in construction and upgradation of numerous roads, bridges and hydropower projects. Chinese links with Pakistan, through PoK, lend strength to the China-Pakistan nexus, which has been of great security concern for India.

The two countries sharing a 4,500 km long disputed border for more than five decades will shortly have a joint working mechanism for cooperation and consultation over the issue with a direct linkage between their capitals.

Noting that most of the Confidence Building Measures with China were focused on border areas such as "flag meetings", informed sources said, however, there are no discussions between headquarters, Delhi and Beijing, on a particular incident or particular situation on the boundary and the working mechanism is going to collect that information.

Army chief has said that the terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and PoK, with over 42 terror training camps, was very much alive and kicking and is intact. A concentration of large number of terrorists on the other side exists and they are trying to infiltrate. We are making sure that their efforts fail," said Gen Singh