NEW DELHI—Recent media reports of a complete de-escalation on the India-China border in Eastern Ladakh are false as Chinese troops have not retreated from the friction points last created post May 2020, when the conflict between the two armies escalated, according to an Indian satellite imagery expert.
“Latest images do not indicate any significant troop or equipment reduction by CCP China’s PLA [People’s Liberation Army],” retired Col. Vinayak Bhat, a satellite imagery expert and an Indian military intelligence veteran, told The Epoch Times in an email. “The media hype on reduced threats or de-escalation by PLA are incorrect.”
It was widely reported across the media on Sept. 13 that the last remaining friction points on the Line of Actual control (LAC) or the de-facto disputed border between India and China, which fall under the purview of China’s Western Theatre Command, are resolved, as troops from both countries pulled back from their respective positions in the Gogra Heights-Hot Springs area. But Col. Bhat said that, while disengagement has happened at various points, de-escalation is yet to happen. …