Galwan face-off: Nyoma block chief had flagged Chinese activity in eastern Ladakh several times
On April 27, BJP’s Urgain Chodon had first raised the issue of heightened Chinese activity in Demchok area on her Facebook page, but had withdrawn the post moments later.
Before the India-China stand-off in eastern Ladkah took a violent turn in Galwan Valley late on Monday, Nyoma block development council (BDC) chairperson Urgain Chodon had been constantly flagging the Chinese activity picking up along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the strategic region.
On April 27, Chodon had first raised the issue of heightened Chinese activity in Demchok area on her Facebook page, but had withdrawn the post moments later.
However, in a series of posts and pictures on June 11, the BDC chief once again exposed China’s expansionist transgressions and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) continued usurping of Indian territory in eastern Ladakh. These pictures and video clips still remain on her Facebook account.
“This year in January, Chinese troops came along with their trained dogs in our territory and warned our nomadic people not to graze herds in their own land and said if they (nomads) did so they will take them away,” she had said in a post.
In another post with pictures, she said her maternal uncle Rigzin lost his ancestral shed at Laegoknonboo because PLA pushed him 50 steps back. “So imagine how many square km we lost.”
“On July 6, 2019, the Chinese PLA came 6km into our territory and unfurled their flag and went back and later in December 2019, they claimed the adjoining territory as theirs,” she wrote on Facebook.
She recalled how Ladakhi herdsmen had to shift their ancestral shed 50 steps back from where they were.
The BJP chairperson had also shared a picture of a road project being constructed by the Chinese in May 2019.
“This macadamised road was constructed by the Chinese communist govt in May 2019 and I took the photo in December. China constructed this road with almost 150 heavy vehicles under our very nose at Fukgap. What we did nothing and what strategies we laid for our border. But on the other hand in Demchok, we have to get permission from DC even for the movement of one JCB. Where is our strategy,” she had asked in another Facebook post.
“Whatever is happening in Galwan valley is nothing new and it’s happening because of lack of concern and strategies for border areas,” she had said on June 11.
On April 27 when Urgain had first flagged the intensified Chinese activity, BJP MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal had told HT that the “chairperson’s messages were sent to the ministries concerned”.
“There is something fishy and the government needs to investigate it,” she had told HT then.
However, Ladakh’s divisional commissioner Saugat Biswas had dubbed Urgain’s claims as “unverified reports”.