Before Moscow pact, Indian & Chinese troops fired 100-200 rounds on Pangong north bank

New Delhi: Before External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi reached an agreement in Moscow on September 10 to dial down tensions along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh, the heightened tensions led to a firing incident between Indian and Chinese troops on the north bank of Pangong Tso, far more intense than the firing of warning shots in the Chushul sub-sector, The Indian Express has learnt.

A top government officer, aware of the details, said this incident took place during the jockeying for dominating the Fingers on the north bank of the lake.

According to the officer, “100 to 200 shots” were fired in the air by both sides on the ridgeline where Finger 3 and Finger 4 merge before moving north as one ridge.

Both India and China had issued statements on the firing incident in the Chushul sub-sector on September 7 which took place on a feature called Mukpari Heights — officials said this was the first time in 45 years that shots were fired along the LAC.

Till date, neither side has officially said anything about the firing on the north bank which took place after the Chushul incident, and was bigger in scale.

While tensions remain on the ground because the next round of talks between Corps Commanders of the two sides is awaited, it is not of the same levels as they were in the first week of September, the officer said.

“In the first week of September, there was a lot of movement” on both the north and south banks of Pangong Tso, the officer said, mentioning “multiple” incidents of firing in the region in the first week of September.

There was, he said, “one small incident” about which, he said, “our chaps didn’t even feel was serious enough to report”.