After Doklam, China tries to enter Ladakh; India foils infiltration bid: Sources

Indian soldiers foiled an infiltration bid by Chinese troops to enter Ladakh, near the Pangong lake.

India China Standoff (Representational pic)

NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR: Indian and Chinese soldiers were allegedly involved in an altercation in the western Himalayas on Tuesday, said sources in the government. Indian soldiers reportedly foiled an infiltration bid by Chinese People's Liberation Army to enter Ladakh, near the Pangong lake.

The incident took place on the morning of Indian Independence Day, August 15. 

"There was an altercation near the Pangong lake," said a police officer in Srinagar, the capital of India`s Jammu and Kashmir state, under which the area falls. An army source in Srinagar also spoke of an altercation following what he called a Chinese army "incursion in Pangong lake area".

A source in New Delhi told Reuters, Chinese soldiers carried iron rods and stones. Both sides suffered from minor injuries.

The scuffle reportedly lasted for 30 minutes. 

Another report suggests that the confrontation occurred after a Chinese patrol lost its way due to bad weather conditions, coming across Indian soldiers at Pangong Lake's northern bank near areas known as Finger Four and Finger Five, sources told India Today.

Indian and Chinese authorities have not responded to the situation yet.

Indian government is likely to raise the issue with its Chinese counterparts in a flag meeting on August 16. 

These developments have further escalated the ongoing tensions between the two countries which are already locked in a two-month standoff over Dokalam.

The two armies are engaged in a standoff in the Doklam plateau further east, in another part of their 3,500 km (2,175 mile) unmarked mountain border.

With Reuters & PTI Input