In a renewed bid to strengthen its infrastructural superiority, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had laid out a strategic road in Doka La barely 2 kms short of the India-China-Bhutan trijunction bordering East Sikkim, subsequently forcing the Indian army to substantially increase troop deployment in the area.

Intelligence and military sources in Sikkim disclosed to The Quint that an Indian army unit stationed close on the Sikkim-Bhutan border strongly objected to the PLA’s ingress into Bhutanese territory in Doka La, also called Dokalam (referred to as Donglong by the Chinese), when it noticed that road-building work, which, if it were to be completed, would have given the Chinese troops a decisive advantage on the strategic heights by bringing them eyeball-to-eyeball with soldiers of the 17th Mountain Division.

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