An alert has been sounded along the China-India border after local residents, including a village head, got several telephone calls from “spies” either from Pakistan or China about the Army deployment along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
The caller, posing himself as either a colonel or a local official, made queries about the Army presence in the area and the timings of their movement, official sources said.
Recently the ‘sarpanch’ (village head) of Durbuk village, located at an altitude of 13,500 feet above sea level between Chang La and Tsangte village, received a call in which the caller asked whether “outstanding” issues with the Army had been sorted.
The sarpanch, who was sitting inside an Army camp at the time of receiving the call, got suspicious and enquired from the caller about his identity.
Despite the caller identifying himself to be from the Deputy Commissioner’s office, the sarpanch identified as Stanzin snubbed him and said he should get in touch with the army.
Talking to PTI over phone, Mr. Stanzin said he received the call only once. “The caller was asking about the movement of troops and whether the roads had been built in the area for their movement.
“He claimed that he was from the army headquarters but with his stupid queries, I did get suspicious and informed the army officer standing next to me,” he said.
‘Pure ignorance’
Later, the Army found that several people in villages along the China-India border had been receiving calls from such unknown numbers and in a few cases basic information had been shared out of “pure ignorance” by the villagers.
The Army took the help of the State administration and a mass campaign has been launched to educate people in general and those living along the border not to share any information with any unidentified caller.
The Army has also asked its formations along the LAC to educate all the civilians in their Areas of Responsibility (AOR) so that such spies do not get any information about the movement of troops.
