The Telegraph
Sujan Dutta
May 28, 2015
Ringing telephones in the “Tiger’s Mouth”, New Delhi and Beijing have quietly opened a rendezvous for their armies in the Indian landmass’ easternmost point at Kibithu in Arunachal Pradesh this month.
The mid-May event at Kibithu where the Lohit river enters India from China – at a place that Chinese troops describe as “Tiger’s Mouth” – coincided with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Beijing.
But neither side chose to publicise it because two earlier efforts to designate Kibithu – near hotly disputed spots on the McMahon Line that India accepts as the border and China rejects – as a meeting point for the two armies had failed.
The place is also near the tri-junction with Myanmar. China is to the north of the meeting point and Myanmar is to the east. “There were perceptual differences in the plains,” an Indian officer said. “But now that has been sorted out and it is agreed we will meet regularly, as and when the need arises.”
One of the disputed hotspots is a zone called the “Fishnet Area” in the zone of responsibility of the Indian Army’s 82 Lohit Brigade. India believes the border – the McMahon Line – runs through the Mohan Ridge. China says the Mohan Ridge is very much in its area. It was the occupation of Mohan Ridge, among other positions, by Indian troops in the 1962 war that led to the hostilities that year.
Kibithu would be the second BPM (Border Personnel Meeting) point in Arunachal after Bumla in the Kameng division, and the fifth on the disputed frontier where representatives of the Indian and Chinese armies will meet to sort out disputes that arise from transgressions and aggressive patrolling.
Apart from that, the armies meet also on formal occasions, such as Diwali and May Day. China still claims nearly 93,000sqkm as its own territory in India’s Northeast, nearly all of Arunachal.
The opening of Kibithu as a BPM point is a breakthrough given its contentious history. Fifty-three years ago, in October 1962, Chinese troops broke in through the border here, forded the raging Lohit and targeted Indian army posts at positions named Ladders, Hundred Hill, Ninety Hill, Eighty Hill and Seventy Hill.
After breaking through the Indian defences, the Chinese troops finally engaged in the Battle of Walong where the Indians put up one of the most valiant challenges in that war during which troops fled from other places. An estimated 4,000 men were killed in the “bowl” of the Lohit Valley, 32km inside Indian territory, before the Chinese declared a unilateral ceasefire and withdrew.
The shadow that those events have cast shape perceptions of the border even now and have so long prevented the institutionalisation of Kibithu as a place to shake hands in. Twice – in October 2006 and in November 2014 – Indian and Chinese army representatives met at Kibithu.
As recently as 2009, Chinese troops were said to have occupied Hundred Hill, which India claims. Indian police and local administrators have also claimed to have sighted Chinese troops in the Chaglagam area.
The police have said they have also arrested Chinese spies after they have crossed the Lohit. In 2011, Chinese troops were alleged to have broken through a wall of stones that the Indians had built to demarcate the border.
