Leh, Jan 31: Tensions persist on the Indo-China border in Eastern Ladakh as local nomads clashed with a Chinese patrolling army unit on January 2.
The confrontation occurred in Nyoma village’s Kakjung area, Chushul Valley, where nomads were allegedly denied access to traditional grazing pastures.
According to media reports, a group of herders was intercepted by unarmed PLA soldiers at Patrolling Points 35, 36, and 37 in Dungti village, accompanied by armored vehicles. A video shared on Instagram showed a herder using a sling to pelt stones at PLA vehicles, while arguments unfolded over ancestral land and grazing rights.
“Why have you come here? Why have you brought your vehicles here,” the herder can be seen shouting at a PLA soldier in Tibetan language, as the siren of one of the PLA armored vehicles blares in the background. He continued: “This is our ancestral land. We graze our livestock here.”
The 9-minute, 50-second video shows the PLA soldiers and the herders getting into a heated argument as they come face to face. The video shows one batch of Chinese soldiers, led by an armored vehicle, pushing the herders and their livestock back.
Chushul Councilor Konchok Stanzin, who posted the video on X, formerly Twitter, said that nomads put up a brave face when the PLA soldiers stopped their livestock from grazing. “Livelihoods of locals have been taken away in the name of buffer zones and patrolling points. Our nomads are struggling for their land,” Stanzin said.
Another report said that the nomads appear to have a heated argument with more than a dozen unarmed PLA soldiers, accompanied by siren-blowing armored military vehicles, who were waving at them to leave the place along with their flock of animals.
The nomads apparently left the grazing field, with Chinese soldiers following them to ensure they were gone.
