NEW DELHI: India may be working the diplomatic hotlines with China, but parallels are already being drawn between the ongoing 10-day military standoff in Ladakh and the Sumdorong Chu incident of 1986-87, which required "a major show of force and resolve" to settle matters amicably.

With "no breakthrough" being achieved in the second flag meeting between the Indian and Chinese armies held on Tuesday, the defence establishment and military operations directorate here went into a hurdle to discuss "various options", including further troop reinforcements to the region, till late in the evening.

The Army may well deploy additional troops in the region if there is no de-escalation over the next few days, said sources.

"The flag meeting, held at Spanggur gap between Daulat Beg Oldie and Chushul, lasted for around five hours. Our side was led by a brigadier, Chinese had a senior colonel. We told them this intrusion was simply unacceptable. But they accused us of aggressive patrolling. There was no concrete outcome, much like the first flag meeting on April 18," said a source.

Currently, India has positioned only 50-60 soldiers from the Ladakh Scouts infantry battalion, which specializes in mountain warfare, and some ITBP personnel across the new camp set up by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) almost 18km inside Indian territory in Depsang Bulge area of Ladakh last week.

"There are 32 PLA troops there, including three officers. Our soldiers, stationed around 100-200 metre away at an altitude of around 16,300-feet, have been doing 'banner drills' (waving banners and placards at the Chinese troops to show it is Indian territory). We are not moving more soldiers to the exact spot to avoid escalation," he added.

This is the first time since the Sumdorong Chu incident that PLA troops, who regularly cross over the unresolved 4,057-km Line of Actual Control (LAC) to exert pressure and lay claim to disputed areas, have not returned back to their base.

Instead, they have set up a camp in tents that led to the ongoing face-off. This "unusual behaviour" has led certain quarters in the defence establishment to speculate whether it would require another Operation Falcon\Chequerboard-like endeavour to resolve the tangle.

It was in late 1986 that the Indian Army had launched Operation Falcon after PLA’s "deep intrusions" into the Sumdorong Chu Valley of Arunachal Pradesh in June that year. India, had even then, lodged strong diplomatic protests, but China had continued to construct helipads and other permanent structures in the area to sustain its troops.

With the then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping even threatening to teach India a lesson akin to the one in 1962, Army chief Gen K Sundarji had air-lifted an infantry brigade under Operation Falcon to Zimithang close to Sumdorong Chu.

India had also conducted a large Army-IAF exercise in the northeast in early-1987, even as the two sides reinforced force-levels in the region. Finally, towards mid-1987, intense diplomatic engagement had led to the face-off being resolved. Incidentally, the forward deployment of troops under Operation Falcon continues to this day.

