One kilometer from the line of Actual Control, ITBP has often encountered Chinese patrolling parties and aggressive encounters, but on Tuesday the Indo-Tibetian Border Police stumbled upon 108 gold bars.
A thorough checking and questioning revealed that 40-year-old Tsering Chamba and 69-year-old Stanzin Dorgyal, both residents of Leh’s Hanley had traveled across the LAC from China with 108.06 kilograms of gold.
“A joint interrogation of the smugglers is being conducted to ascertain the exact source and destination of the gold,” an ITBP spokesperson said.
Three people have been arrested by ITBP and joint interrogation with the Ladakh police is on. Officials told News18 that Chinese food products like cake, milk packets, and lassi recovered from them established that the trio had sourced their booty in China.
“Troops of the 21st battalion ITBP launched a long-range patrol on Tuesday afternoon in the Changthang sub-sector in eastern Ladakh, including Chizbule, Narbula, Zangle, and Zakla to check infiltration of smugglers as the smuggling activities are heightened around the summer season,” IG ITBP Lhari Dorjee Lhatoo, said.
The ITBP said it had got inputs of smuggling in Sriraple, one kilometer from the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh. Around 1 pm on Tuesday, ITBP deputy commandant Deepak Bhat and his patrolling party noticed two people on mules in the remote part of eastern Ladakh and asked them to stop, but they tried to escape.
A chase and subsequent search of their camping area lead ITBP to recover gold, two mobile phones, a binocular, two knives, a hammer and several Chinese food items. Two ponies have also been seized by the border guarding force.
As per ITBP officials this is the single largest haul of gold ever made from the LAC. Interrogators, sources said, are trying to ascertain if the smugglers had sneaked in, in the past and also the nature of goods being smuggled from China.
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