Chinese incursion: Arunachal students’ body plans to hoist national flag at frontier village on I-Day
AAPSU president Meje Taku said his team’s tour to Taksing was planned to draw greater attention to border security, connectivity, and infrastructure in remote areas. Photo Credit: https://www.facebook.com/meje.taku
An Arunachal Pradesh students’ body sent a team to the frontier village of Taksing in the State’s Upper Subansiri district on Thursday (August 13, 2026), to “assess the prevailing situation in the border areas” following reports of alleged incursions and activities by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA).The decision of the All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU) to visit a sensitive stretch of the India-China border followed a fact-finding report by the People’s Party of Arunachal (PPA), which said that Chinese soldiers had taken over a patrolling point abandoned by the Indian Army in 2023.AAPSU president Meje Taku said his team’s tour to Taksing was planned to draw greater attention to border security, connectivity, and infrastructure in remote areas. He also said the union’s ‘Taksing Chalo, Bharat Bachao’ tour would culminate on August 15 with the hoisting of the national flag.‘Stronger security needed’“The people and youth of Arunachal Pradesh will not accept any attempt to undermine the country’s territorial integrity,” Mr. Taku said, calling for stronger security measures along the frontier.“Arunachal Pradesh was, is, and will forever remain an integral and inalienable part of India. Our people will continue to stand with our armed forces and residents of the border villages,” he added.The AAPSU said it would prepare a ground assessment report based on its team’s visit and submit it to the Central and Arunachal Pradesh governments, seeking stronger security arrangements and faster implementation of development projects in the frontier villages.Alleged Chinese takeoverAlthough the Indian government and armed forces have denied any transgression by Chinese soldiers, the Nah Welfare Society, an organisation of a tribe residing near the international border, has been repeatedly flagging the alleged takeover of Indian territories by the PLA.On August 10, the PPA said that its four-member team, led by former Minister Kahfa Bengia, reached the frontier on July 10 and interacted with local residents and army personnel stationed in Taksing, Maza, and Galemo.The PPA said local residents told them that the Indian Army had never returned to Shera 5 Point, a border patrolling point, after a 2023 confrontation between the PLA and Arunachal Scouts, a specialised mountain infantry regiment of the Indian Army based in the State.“The PLA came back, destroyed, and dismantled the symbolic remains of the Indian patrolling troops at Shera 5 Point. Since then, the Indian patrolling units have been denied access to the point by the PLA,” the PPA said in a statement.‘Irregular patrolling’The party also said Nanga Pahar, once considered the ancestral hunting and yak-rearing areas of the Nah and Mara communities living along the border, has been turned into a “strictly prohibited zone for the locals, giving an advantage to the PLA to push their encroachment activities toward the Indian side.”The PPA attributed the PLA’s activities to the “lack of consistent patrolling throughout the year” by Indian soldiers. “Regular patrolling is done between April and October and discontinued for the rest of the months due to inclement or hostile weather with heavy snowfall, while the PLA continue patrolling throughout the year,” it said.The party claimed that porters engaged by the Indian Army for logistical support had ascertained the “non-regular patrolling” along the Line of Actual Control during the harsh winter months. Published - August 13, 2026 08:28 pm IST
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