Chumar stand-off: Two ITBP men awarded gallantry medals

In a first, two troops of border guarding force ITBP have been decorated with gallantry medals this Republic Day for exhibiting a steely resolve in the icy Himalayan heights while diffusing the month-long face-off with the Chinese PLA army in Ladakh's Chumar division in 2014.
The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has always got bravery awards, including military medals, for their brave exploits during their duties in guarding Indian interests in Afghanistan or while working in other internal security theatres of the country like combating Left Wing Extremism.
"This is the first time for the force to get bravery medals for duties along the border it guards.

"The force is rendering some of the toughest duties along the Sino-Indian frontier which has been a witness to some serious confrontations between the security personnel on the two sides, albeit, without even a single bullet being fired ever," a senior official said.
The Police Medal for Gallantry (PMG) has been awarded to Assistant Commandant Deepak Singh and Head Constable Kanwar Singh who "without caring for relief and respite in extreme cold climate at icy heights gave gallant account of themselves to contain and defuse the situation which ultimately resulted in de-escalation of the situation peacefully and in safeguarding the security and interest of the nation."

The Chumar standoff was one of the longest between the two sides on this mountainous border which has witnessed a number of incidents between ITBP/Army and PLA owing to the respective sides' perception of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

In a candid account of his memoirs about the incident, former ITBP Director General Subhas Goswami had termed as "evil design" of Chinese Army this face-off which, he said, saw both sides entering into "serious" altercations.
Terming the reasons for the standoff as part of Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) machinations, Goswami, who was heading the force at that time, wrote about an eye-ball-to-eye-ball situation with the PLA in Chumar, located 210 kms northeast of Leh town of Jammu and Kashmir.

"It was about the eye-ball-to-eye-ball standoff with the Chinese Army at Chumar in Ladakh. On receiving information that the PLA was preparing to build a road in our territory, ITBP along with the Indian Army rushed to the spot and physically prevented the Chinese Army from carrying out their evil design.
"This stout defence led to serious altercations and jostling between the opposing troops," Goswami had recently written in his memoirs he penned for the 54th anniversary of the force which was celebrated last year in October.
He had said the PLA expanded the area of conflict to near by locations by "heli-lifting" its forces from the rear but finally had to "go back to their barracks."

The ITBP is tasked to guard the 3,488km long Sino-Indian frontier.