India, China beef up positions on Sikkim border

India and China have both rushed additional troops to the frontier region of Sikkim in the High Himalayas after a clash earlier this month.

India said Chinese troops crossed the Line of Actual Control on Jun 10 at Lalten outpost and smashed two Indian bunkers before being stopped by a 'human chain' formed by Indian soldiers.

But there was no firing and a timely flag meeting helped control the situation.

The Chinese foreign office broke its silence on Tuesday, blaming Indian troops for crossing the Line of Actual Control (LAC) to stop some construction by the Chinese.

Chinese officials in the Tibet Autonomous Region have said they will not allow Indian pilgrims to visit Manas Sarvovar lake in Tibet until the faceoff between Indian and Chinese troops is resolved.

Chinese troops crossed the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Indian state of Sikkim on Jun 10, smashed two bunkers before they were stopped by Indian soldiers.

"They tried to push further and they were filming the action. We stopped them and managed to push them back. But neither we nor they fired" said an Indian brigadier on condition of anonymity.

He insisted there was no firing and the situation was now said to be under control.

Indian and Chinese troops have usually been involved in aggressive border patrolling over a disputed frontier since bilateral relations nosedived as the Modi administration stepped up the ante on a host of contentious issues.

Indian and Chinese officials exchange niceties in better times

Both foreign offices were in communication over the incident.

The Indian army says it has issued a high alert in the Sikkim sector in view of the 'unusual aggressiveness' of the Chinese.

They claim the bunkers are on what they see as their side of the LAC.

The Chinese had earlier stopped 47 Indian pilgrims trying to visit the holy Manassarovar lake in Tibet when they tried to enter through the Nathu La pass earlier this month.

The Chinese said roads in Tibet on way to the lake have been blocked by huge landslides. Such landslides have killed more than 100 people in Tibet's neighbouring province of Sichuan. But now they say the pilgrims can only be allowed after the face off is resolved.

China has so far welcomed pilgrims to the lake since an agreement a decade ago. .

Indian Prime minister Narendra Modi has completed a tour of the US and China has warned against possible combined Indo-US muscle flexing in the South China Sea.

Modi recently boasted of 'not a single shot being fired' on the border with China. But he called for Chinese consideration of Indian interests, referring to Beijing's persistent blocking of Indian efforts to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

The last time Indian and Chinese troops were involved in firing at each other was in 1967 at Nathu La pass in Sikkim, five years after the border war in which India was routed .