China shuts down access to Nathu La pass over border standoff

TIL Desk/World/Beijing/ China has accused Indian troops of “crossing the boundary” in the Sikkim section and demanded their immediate withdrawal while asserting that it has shut down the Nathu La pass entry for Indian pilgrims traveling to Kailash Mansarovar because of the border standoff.

China also said that it had put off the visit of Indian pilgrims who enter Tibet via the Nathu La pass “for safety reasons” in view of the border issue.” China urges India to immediately withdraw its border guards that have crossed the boundary and have a thorough investigation of this matter,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said.

“The Indian border guards crossed the boundary in the Sikkim section of the China-India border and entered the territory of China, and obstructed normal activities of Chinese frontier forces in the Donglang area recently, and the Chinese side has taken counter-measures,” he said in a statement last night.

His statement came after the Chinese Defence Ministry accused the Indian troops of objecting to building a road in what it claimed to be Chinese territory. The dispute over the constructing of the road was apparently the reason why China stopped a batch of 47 Indian pilgrims from crossing through Nathu La border in Sikkim into Tibet to visit Kailash and Mansarovar.