Union Sports minister Kiren Rijiju said on Friday that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army is likely to hand over five youths from Arunachal Pradesh who had strayed across the border to the Chinese side earlier this month after which they went missing to the Indian authorities on Saturday.
In his tweet, Rijiju wrote,“The Chinese PLA has confirmed to the 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.”
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. https://t.co/UaM9IIZl56
— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) September 11, 2020
Rijiju, who represents BJP from Arunachal West was the one who earlier informed on Tuesday that the People’s Liberation Army had confirmed the missing youths to be found on China’s side of the border and said modalities to hand the persons over were being worked out.
China's PLA has responded to the hotline message sent by Indian Army. They have confirmed that the missing youths from Arunachal Pradesh have been found by their side. Further modalities to handover the persons to our authority is being worked out.
— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) September 8, 2020
“The youths, who were hunting in the area, had inadvertently crossed over to the other side. The PLA informed us that they all are okay. Formalities for their early transfer are being coordinated with the Chinese side,” Lt Col Harsh Wardhan Pande, PRO (Defence), Tezpur, Assam, had said on Tuesday
There were allegations that the PLA had kidnapped the five individuals and many leaders includingTapir Gao, BJP MP from Arunachal East and Congress MLA from Pasighat Ninong Ering had made such accusations in their tweets.
The five missing individuals were identified as Toch Singkam, Prasat Ringling, Dongtu Ebiya, Tanu Baker and Ngaru Diri who used to work as porters for Indian Army. They had gone missing on September 2 reportedly from Sera-7 on the Indian side of the McMohan line bifurcating Arunachal Pradesh and Tibet autonomous region (TAR) of China.
However, China’s state affiliated Global Times tweeted quoting Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian had written on Monday that : “China has never recognised so called ‘Arunachal Pradesh’, which is China’s south Tibet region, and we have no details to release yet about question on Indian Army sending message to PLA about five missing Indians in the region”, dismissing India’s concern.
