China dismisses PLA links with Manipur attackers

China has dismissed India’s allegations that the People’s Liberation Army is assisting militants in northeast India, saying that such charges made by Indian officials are ‘absurd’ and underlined that any linkage of Chinese army with militants is impossible.

The state-run Global Times quoted the officials of the Chinese government-run think-tanks, and wrote that any claim that PLA officers may be in touch with the leaders of an insurgent group – Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K) — suspected to have been involved in a recent attack on Indian troops, is “absurd.

Following the gruesome attack on the Indian Army, that

killed 20 Army men and injured 15, a senior Indian official had said that NSCN-K abrogated its ceasefire pact with the government following the PLA’s instructions.

Indian intelligence agencies had also suspected China’s role in the attack, saying that China has renewed attempts to create trouble in the Northeast region by supporting the terror outfits. It was also believed that a former officer of China’s PLA had set up a factory of assault rifles in Kachin province of Myanmar to supply ammunitions to insurgents of the Northeast.

Zhao Gancheng, director of the Centre for Asian-Pacific Studies at the state-run Shanghai Institute for International Studies, said, “The Indian media has long been a rumour monger when it comes to China’s support for the insurgent groups in north eastern India.”

“A connection between China and the Indian rebels is impossible, especially after India and China resumed diplomatic relationships in 1988,” he added.

Li Li, deputy director at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, termed such accusations absurd, and said that China wouldn’t interfere in the domestic affairs of India, especially at this juncture when the two countries’ relationship is developing well after India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to China last month.

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