India returns Chinese soldier who strayed across disputed border
- The handover is a rare positive development as the months-long stand-off continues along the frontier
- Both sides have built up troop numbers and equipment after a deadly clash in the Himalayas earlier this year
India has returned a Chinese soldier who crossed the disputed border between the two sides last week.
The smooth handover is seen as a rare positive sign in a volatile area, where thousands of troops, tanks and artillery remain after almost a year of heightened, sometimes deadly, tensions between the two sides.
The Indian army returned the PLA soldier to the Chinese side at 10.10am on Monday at Chushul-Moldo – a crossing point where senior officers from both sides have met for talks, according to the PLA and Indian media reports.
The Indian army reported on Saturday that it had apprehended the yet unnamed soldier on Friday near the south bank of Pangong Tso, a mountain lake along the Line of Actual Control, the de facto frontier.
Pangong Tso is the site of the first clashes in May that began the border escalation, where soldiers exchanged blows and threw rocks at one another along the banks of the lake.
