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India, China troops in high-altitude clash: officials
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A picture taken from an aircraft shows an aerial view of the Himalayan Mountain range of Annapurna and Mount Machapuchare, west of Kathmandu on February 1, 2017. (AFP/Prakash Mathema)
I
ndian and Chinese troops clashed briefly on a disputed area of land in the Himalayas, officials said Wednesday, exacerbating tensions during a months-long stand-off between the two armies.
Chinese troops threw stones at Indian soldiers near Pangong Lake, a major tourist attraction in the picturesque mountain region of Ladakh on Tuesday, an Indian defence official said.
He said Chinese soldiers had twice tried to enter the Indian territory but had been pushed back.
"There was a minor incident. There was some stone pelting from the Chinese side but the situation was quickly brought under control," he told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The brief confrontation was resolved after Indian and Chinese sides retreated to their respective positions, he added.
Police in the north Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, where Ladakh is located, said clashes were relatively common along the de facto border known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
"These things happen every summer but this one was slightly prolonged and more serious but no weapons were used," a police source in Srinagar told AFP.
The Pangong lake area lies over 4,000 metres (13,000 feet) high on the Tibetan plateau.
The latest incident comes amid an ongoing dispute between the two sides over a strategic Himalayan plateau thousands of kilometres away where hundreds of Indian and Chinese soldiers have been facing off against each other for more than two months.
