Antony non-committal if India would withdraw from Chumar

Defence minister AK Antony today remained non-committal whether India had agreed to withdraw its troops from a key post in Chumar area in Ladkah as was being demanded by China.

Defence minister AK Antony on Tuesday remained non-committal whether India had agreed to withdraw its troops from a key post in Chumar area in Ladkah as was being demanded by China.

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"I will just say that the two sides have agreed to have status quo ante," he said when asked if the Army has agreed to withdraw troops from bunkers built in Chumar area.

Reports on Tuesday suggested that though the government has asserted that no concessions were offered to the Chinese to end the face-off in east Ladakh, the Army seemed to have agreed to removal of bunkers built by it in Chumar close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) to facilitate an agreement.

The reports said the 21-day eyeball-to-eyeball situation in Ladakh's Depsang valley ended only after the Army agreed to demolish bunkers it had built in the region.

During the flag meetings on the issue during the stand-off between the two sides, the Chinese side had been demanding that India dismantle its bunkers in Chumar before talking about withdrawal of its troops from the Depsang valley.