Chinese troops along LoC

China’s presence in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) is “increasing steadily” and its troops are “actually present” along the Line of Control, a top army commander said, adding the Chinese footprints are “too close for comfort” for India. The massive build-up of Chinese military infrastructure all along the 4,057-km LAC, especially in the Tibet Autonomous Region, as well as the expanding Chinese footprint in infrastructure projects in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir PoK is by now well-documented. But this is the first time a senior army commander has publicly expressed apprehensions about Chinese People's Liberation Army troops actually being stationed along the volatile 778-km-long LoC between India and Pakistan. “Chinese presence in Gilgit-Baltistan and the Northern Areas is increasing steadily... There are many people who are concerned about the fact that if there was to be hostility between us and Pakistan, we wonder what would be the complicity of the Chinese stand. Not only are they in the neighbourhood but the fact is that they are present and stationed along the LoC,” Northern Army commander Lt Gen K T Parnaik said here last week while addressing a seminar. Parnaik said China’s links with Pakistan through PoK presence “lends strength” to the “nexus” between the two countries with Pakistan which is a cause of “great security concern” for India.