Sticking to the announced timeline, India and China have completed disengagement in the Depsang and Demchok regions of Eastern Ladakh and patrolling will begin soon, said Army sources, adding that sweets will also be exchanged with troops from the Chinese side on the occasion of Diwali on Thursday. 

The sources from the Indian Army said on Wednesday that the verification process is on and the modalities of patrolling will be decided by the ground commanders. Chinese Ambassador to India Xu Fiehong told reporters in Kolkata hours later that the two countries had reached a “point of common understanding”. 

On October 21, India had announced that a patrolling agreement had been reached for the two contentious areas and the troops would return to the positions that existed before the stand-off between the two countries began in 2020. The disengagement process included the dismantling of structures and the restoration of the land on which they stood to their original condition. 

Days after the agreement was announced, NDTV had accessed the first satellite images proving that structures were being removed by the Chinese side. 

An image from the Depsang plains taken on October 11 showed four vehicles and two tents and, in another from October 25, the tents were gone and the vehicles could be seen moving away. The images were of an area near the ‘Y Junction’ from where Indian soldiers were prevented from travelling east to India’s patrolling points. The patrolling points, or PPs, mark the extent of the Line of Actual Control that India claims in these areas. 

Another set of images showed semi-permanent Chinese structures being removed from Demchok.

A four-decade-old land dispute between two sides became the cause of a brutal murder in Uttar Pradesh’s Jaunpur on Wednesday with a few men chopping off a 17-year-old boy’s head with a sword. The teenager’s wailing mother sat with the severed head in her lap for hours. 

Police officials said two parties had a decades-old conflict over land in Kabiruddin village under the Gaurabadshahpur police station and things turned violent on Wednesday when they clashed. Anurag, 17, son of Ramjeet Yadav was chased by a few men, one of whom was wielding a sword. Anurag was attacked and the weapon was swung with such force that the teenager’s head was separated from the torso. Two people have been taken into custody but the sword-bearer is on the run and officials said efforts are on to trace him. 

Several police teams were rushed to the spot to prevent the law and order situation from deteriorating. Villagers said that the boy’s mother sat with the severed head in her lap for several hours. 

Superintendent of Police Ajay Pal Sharma said, “The land dispute has been festering for 40 to 45 years. Two people from one of the parties, Ramesh and Laalta, were among those who attacked the opposite side and one person was killed. The district magistrate and I are at the spot. Some of the accused have been taken into custody and are being questioned. Further investigation is on.”

Jaunpur District Magistrate Dinesh Chandra said the people who committed the crime will be given the harshest-possible punishment. “This is an old land dispute between the two parties and it is also pending in the civil court. I have asked for a report on the dispute within three days,” he said. 

(With inputs from Rajesh Srivastava)

The Uttarakhand Forest Department is currently assessing the growing popularity of bird watching within the state.