Five villagers who went missing in Arunachal Pradesh handed over by China: Reports

Five men, who went missing from villages in Arunachal Pradesh border, have been returned to India by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), reports said on Saturday morning.

However, the Union Minister Kiran Rijiju had confirmed the return of five villagers for today in a tweet on Friday saying, “The Chinese PLA has confirmed to Indian Army to hand over the youths from Arunachal Pradesh to our side. The handing over is likely to take place anytime tomorrow i.e. 12th September 2020 at a designated location.”

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https://x.com/KirenRijiju/status/1304410820911091712

Reports suggest that the handover took place in the Chinese territory and the five villagers will reach to the Indian side through Kibithu border post.

“As a result of persistent efforts of Indian Army, five missing hunters from Indian side of LAC in Upper Subansiri, who had inadvertently crossed over to other side on 2 September 2020, were traced. Chinese Army on September 8 responded on hotline and confirmed that the missing Indians have been found on their side,” the Army had said in a statement.

https://x.com/ProAssam/status/1304438269166280704

The five men who had been missing since September 1 were hunters, the army had said in a statement.

The army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police uses locals as porters, guides and scouts during Long-range patrols (LRPs).

The Indian and Chinese foreign ministers, S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi after two-and-half hours of bilateral talks agreed to disengage and de-escalate the situation at the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The duo also came to a five-point agreement.

S Jaishankar, External Affairs Minister of India met Wang Yi, State Councillor and Foreign Minister of China in Moscow on the side-lines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting.

As per a joint statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs Friday, both ministers had a “frank and constructive” discussion on the developments in the India-China border areas, as well as the relations between the two countries.