Indian and Chinese troops were involved in a new border brawl, AFP reported. Injuries have been reported on both sides, the news agency quoted reports in the Indian media. 

As per a report in News18, the Indian Army and China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) clashed last week at Naku La in Sikkim. The brawl was triggered after a PLA patrol party attempted to enter into the Indian territory and were physically blocked. 

Releasing a statement, the Indian Army confirmed that there was a “minor face-off” at Nakula area of North Sikkim on January 20 and it was “resolved by local commanders as per established protocols.”

“Media is requested to refrain from overplaying or exaggerating reports which are factually incorrect,” the Army said in a brief statement, PTI reported.

Naku La was the same site where the Indian and Chinese troops had engaged in a fierce face-off on May 9 last year following a violent clash between the two sides in Pangong lake area in eastern Ladakh that has triggered the nearly nine-month-long military standoff, PTI reported. 

The clash took place at a time when both the armies are already involved in an over six-month-long standoff in Ladakh, at the western sector of the Indo-China border. In a fierce border clash at Ladakh’s Galwan Valley on June 15, about 20 Indian army personnel and an unknown number of PLA soldiers were killed.

The Indian and Chinese armies on Sunday held another round of Corps Commander-level talks with an aim to move forward on disengagement of troops from all the friction points in eastern Ladakh.

The fresh clash in Sikkim is reported in the eastern sector of the Indo-China border.

In another development along the eastern sector, NDTV had recently reported that China had set up a village in Arunachal Pradesh, within 4.5 km within Indian territory of the de facto border. However, the region has been under Chinese control since 1959.

Reacting to the report, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that China’s construction activities on “its own territory” is “normal,” PTI reported.

“China’s position on the east sector of the China-India boundary, or Zangnan region (the southern part of China’s Tibet), is consistent and clear,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying had told the media.

“We have never recognised the so-called Arunachal Pradesh illegally established on the Chinese territory,” she added.