Kapur told personnel at an awards ceremony in Alwar, Rajasthan, that newly established Shaurya commando teams had participated in handling the confrontations. His remarks came weeks after senior military officers from India and China held talks intended to address the situation along the disputed Line of Actual Control (LAC).
“Face-offs happened at several locations in Arunachal, and it still continues,” he said, describing the activity of the specialised units. He did not identify each location, disclose troop numbers or announce any resolution. Nor did he indicate that the encounters had developed into armed clashes.
The standoff has centred partly on the Taksing area of Upper Subansiri district, where patrols from the two countries encountered each other near Maja during July. Accounts of the deployment indicate that Chinese personnel subsequently established tents in territory that New Delhi regards as lying on its side of the LAC. The precise positions and competing territorial claims have not been independently established.
Troops from India have maintained a substantial presence in the sector. The Army and the ITBP both operate along the frontier, where differences over the alignment of the undemarcated boundary can produce encounters between patrols. The latest remarks suggest that military contacts have not eliminated friction on the ground.
Corps commanders met on September 6 at the Wacha-Damai border personnel meeting point in Arunachal Pradesh. The meeting followed exchanges between local commanders and broader diplomatic discussions. The two governments have not publicly announced a settlement covering the locations identified by Kapur. The September meeting was notable because corps commander discussions connected with the China boundary had previously mainly concentrated on the western sector, especially eastern Ladakh.
The diplomatic contacts included a meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs on August 6 and talks between the countries’ special representatives on the boundary question in Beijing on August 26. National Security Adviser Ajit Doval represented India at the latter discussions.
Earlier, government officials had maintained that the Army and ITBP were equipped to monitor Chinese activity and respond to developments in the sector. They said encounters could arise from differing perceptions of the LAC and were addressed through established protocols. Kapur’s account establishes that confrontations remain active, although it does not determine responsibility for their occurrence.
China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of its territory, a position rejected by New Delhi. The unresolved boundary disagreement has complicated efforts to stabilise relations even as senior representatives from both countries maintain diplomatic and military channels. There was no independently verified Chinese response to Kapur’s Thursday comments.
Kapur used the ceremony to outline changes to the ITBP’s operational capabilities, including the expansion of its Shaurya commandos into a specialised high-altitude fighting formation. Teams have already been established in border battalions, with plans to build a dedicated battalion. He said mountain operations remained central to the force’s responsibilities.
The director general also called for replacement of ageing weapons, saying personnel had continued using equipment based on designs familiar to officers who entered service decades ago. He argued that modernisation was necessary to meet challenges from a military whose weapons and infrastructure had undergone extensive development.
Uncrewed aerial systems constitute another priority. Kapur said the ITBP had spent 70 per cent of a ₹400-crore modernisation allocation on drones and reserved ₹1,000 crore for similar equipment under a further proposed programme valued at ₹3,500 crore to ₹4,000 crore.
Drone platoons have been formed in border-guarding battalions, while the force is training pilots and producing some systems internally. Kapur emphasised counter-drone capabilities alongside surveillance and deployment, citing changes in warfare that have increased the vulnerability of exposed positions.
He also described pilot projects for underground structures at border outposts. Such shelters, he said, would provide protection against attacks on positions above ground. Plans envisage expanding the structures across the force’s forward network after initial designs are assessed.
The ITBP, established in 1962, performs border-guarding duties under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Its deployment covers remote, high-altitude stretches where weather limits access and makes sustained patrolling difficult, particularly outside the June-to-October operating period in parts of Arunachal Pradesh.
