NDTV Exclusive: 1st Images Of Chinese Troops’ Disengagement In Ladakh

Days after India announced that a patrolling arrangement had been reached with China, NDTV has accessed the first satellite images of disengagement taking place on the ground in Depsang and Demchok in Eastern Ladakh. 

The agreement was announced on Monday and a satellite image from the Depsang plains taken on October 11 shows four vehicles and two tents.

Another image taken on Friday shows that the tents have been removed and the vehicles are moving away. The land on which the tents stood has also been restored.

The high-resolution images have been provided by Maxar. 

The images from Depsang are from near the ‘Y Junction’ from where Indian soldiers were prevented from travelling east to India’s patrolling points. The patrolling points, or PPs, mark the extent of the Line of Actual Control that India claims in these areas. 

In a similar satellite image from Demchok from October 9, semi-permanent Chinese structures can be seen.

The same structures are missing in an image from the disputed site on Friday. 

Army sources had said earlier in the day that the process of disengagement would be completed in the two contentious areas by Tuesday, October 29,  and the troops would return to the positions that existed before the stand-off between the two countries began in 2020. The process includes the dismantling of structures and restoring the land on which they stood to their original condition. 

Sources said both India and China will continue to have surveillance options in Depsang and Demchok, and troops will inform the other side before stepping out on patrol “to avoid any miscommunication”.

The stand-off began in May 2020 and a clash took place in Ladakh’s Galwan the next month in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed in action and the Chinese side also suffered losses, with the exact number remaining unconfirmed.

A troop buildup followed on both sides and military-level talks began taking place to resolve the stand-off. In September 2022, Indian and Chinese troops withdrew from the contentious Gogra-Hot Springs area in Ladakh and returned to the pre-April-2020 position.

‘Peace And Stability’

After the announcement by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on Monday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar confirmed it at the NDTV World Summit. 

“We reached an agreement on patrolling, and we have gone back to the 2020 position. With that, we can say the disengagement with China has been completed. Details will come out in due course,” Mr Jaishankar said. 

“There are areas which, for various reasons after 2020, they blocked us, we blocked them. We have now reached an understanding which will allow patrolling as we had been doing till 2020,” he added. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi then met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Russia – their first bilateral since 2019 – on Wednesday and they welcomed the agreement. “It should be our priority to ensure there is peace and stability along our border,” PM Modi told Mr Jinping.