ITBP Chief Confirms Face-Offs With Chinese Troops Continue in Arunachal Pradesh

India's border police chief has confirmed in public that Indian and Chinese troops are still facing off at several locations in Arunachal Pradesh. Shatrujeet Kapur, director general of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), spoke on Thursday, October 22, at a felicitation ceremony for personnel in Alwar, Rajasthan, ahead of the force's 65th Raising Day. "In the past few days, a situation arose where face-offs happened at several locations in Arunachal and it still continues," Kapur said.

The remarks are the first official confirmation that the confrontations in the northeastern sector are continuing. Kapur did not name each location, give troop numbers, or say that any encounter had turned into an armed clash. No violence or casualties from the recent face-offs have been reported.

A standoff near Taksing that dates to July

Reports from the sector point to the Asaphila area near Taksing, in the Upper Subansiri district, where patrols from the two countries met near Maja in July 2026. Accounts carried in Indian media say Chinese personnel later pitched tents on ground that New Delhi regards as lying on its side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the undemarcated frontier between the two countries. The exact positions and the competing claims have not been independently established. One of the face-offs took place during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to India last month for the BRICS Summit, according to reports. Indian troops have kept a substantial presence in the sector since July.

Talks have not cleared the ground

The two sides held Corps Commander level talks on Sep 6, 2026, at the Wacha-Damai border meeting point in Arunachal Pradesh, after a series of meetings between local commanders in the weeks before. Military and diplomatic contacts have continued since then, but Kapur's remarks show that friction on the ground has not ended. The opposition Congress party has since sought answers from the government in New Delhi over the reported Chinese activity in the border region.

A mountain force racing to modernise

The ITBP has guarded the entire 3,488 kilometre LAC since 2004. The force was raised in 1962 as a mountain guerrilla force, and Kapur said it must hold on to that original role while it carries out conventional border guarding. He praised the force's newly raised Shaurya commando teams, which specialise in high altitude warfare, for their work during the confrontations. The force is also rolling out one drone platoon in every border battalion, has spent 70 percent of an initial Rs 400 crore allocation on drones, and is piloting underground shelters at forward posts under a three year plan. A wider modernisation envelope of about Rs 3,500 to 4,000 crore would set aside roughly Rs 1,000 crore for drone and anti-drone systems, and a new Strike training course, built around lessons from the 2020 Galwan Valley clash, is to cover the whole force by the end of 2027. Kapur told personnel that China has moved ahead in modernising its forces and that weapons carried by the ITBP are 50 years old. Kapur is scheduled to retire on October 31.