India 'firmly in control' of northern border: Lt Gen Kalita

Kolkata: Border areas along the country's northern frontier are "stable" and Indian Armed forces remain "firmly in control", Eastern Army commander Lt General R P Kalita Friday said.

Kalita's assertion comes a week after Indian and Chinese soldiers clashed at the border area of Yangtze, to the north east of the monastery town of Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, which had been invaded by China's PLA in 1962.

Stating that there are different perceptions of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) by the Indian Army and China's People's Liberation Army at several points, he said that eight of these areas are acknowledged by both sides.

Kalita said that the PLA transgressed in one of these areas in the Tawang sector in Arunachal Pradesh, which was "very firmly contested" by Indian forces on ground.

"Presently, would like to assure everybody that the border areas along the northern frontier are stable and we are firmly in control," General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Command, Lt General Kalita said.

Maintaining that there were some minor injuries to soldiers of both sides, he said that local commanders were able to resolve the issue by carrying out negotiations resorting to existing protocols.

"It led to some amount of physical violence, but it was contained at the local level resorting to existing bilateral mechanisms and protocols," the commander said.