Chinese vacating Finger 4 area of Pangong lake, dismantling shelters

The Chinese Peoples Liberation Army is finally vacating Finger 4 area on the northern bank of Pangong lake that it had occupied last year and changed the status quo on the Line of Actual Control with India The Chinese troops are dismantling shelters and removing other structures they had built up during the occupationThis is happening as per the disengagement agreement between India and ChinaThe agreement states that Chinese troops will move back to Finger 8 and Indian troops will pull back to the Dhan Singh Thapa post between Finger 2 and 3 of the north bank of Pangong lake Further there would be a temporary moratorium on military activities including patrolling in the traditional areasThe mountain spurs jutting into the lake are referred to as Fingers in military parlance The north bank of the lake is divided into 8 fingers India has claimed its territory till Finger 8 and China disputes its claims till Finger 4There have been regular faceoffs between the two armies between Finger 4 and Finger 8 a distance of eight kilometres on the northern bank of the lakeA senior government official said there has been a considerable thinning of troops from Finger 4 The official also said that the PLA is removing its boats from the lake China has deployed a lot of men and materiel at Finger 4 and south of the lake to alter the status quo at the LACBefore the tensions last year boats were deployed beyond Finger 8 of the lakeOnce withdrawal happens patrolling will be resumed only when both sides reach an agreement in diplomatic and military talks that would be held subsequentlyFurther Indian and Chinese troops are also falling back from eyeballtoeyeball confrontation positions on the south bank of the lakeOn the southern bank of the lake tanks that were separated by less than 100 metres have been pulled back by both countries forcesIndia and China are engaged in a nearly 10monthlong military standoff at the Line of Actual Control The confrontations began on the north bank of Pangong lake both in the waters and the bank as Chinese incursions increased in early May last yearThe confrontation later spilled over to the southern bank following which the Indian Army occupied crucial heights irking the Chinese that led to incidents of gunshots being fired in the airThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever