The report was filed last week at the annual conference of the country’s top police officers in Delhi, which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. It added that, “Later, China would force us to accept the fact that these areas had not seen the presence of ISF or Indian nationals for a long time. The Chinese were present in these areas. The Indian side creates a “buffer zone” around all such pockets. India will eventually lose control of these areas. The PLA (People’s Liberation Army of China) is taking the land inch by inch. This tactic of grabbing inches is known as ‘salami slicing’.

The officer wrote, “The PLA has taken advantage of the buffer zones in the de-escalation talks by placing its best cameras on the highest peaks and monitoring the movement of our security forces… They object to our movement even in the buffer zone .the Chinese claim it is their territory and then ask us to go back to create more ‘buffer’ zones.” PD Nitya said this Chinese strategy was seen in the Galwan Valley, where a deadly clash took place in 2020, when 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese soldiers were killed in a face-off. Nitya also said that marking areas out of bounds and keeping them empty also affects the morale of the army.