China placing missiles in G-B, encircling India: Jaswant Singh

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

* BJP leader claims Chinese military building road, rail networks in G-B

* Says even Pak Army denied access to building sites

By Iftikhar Gilani/ap

NEW DELHI: The Chinese military has dug tunnels in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) and is storing missiles there in an attempt to encircle India, claimed a senior leader of India's Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday.

Speaking in Lok Sabha, the Lower House of Indian parliament, BJP leader Jaswant Singh claimed that the Chinese military is storing missiles in tunnels it has dug in G-B. The target of the missiles, he said, is India. Singh warned that Beijing was trying to "encircle" India. He said it has set up permanent structures in G-B in Jammu and Kashmir, which he said is "an inalienable part of India".

Rail, road networks: Singh remarked Pakistan has handed over G-B to China and the People's Liberation Army personnel were digging tunnels there to set up rail and road networks for placement of missiles. He asserted that "even locals and Pakistan Army personnel were not allowed to venture in those areas".

The former foreign minister stressed that it was an issue of vital national importance on which the government must respond in unequivocal terms. He criticised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's recent statement on China's actions, which said that ''we do not have to be reciprocal'. Singh said that India was being encircled by the People's Republic of China and the prime minister chooses not to respond. He observed that statecraft was a cruel dealing where personal niceties had little relevance.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of External Affairs on Monday denied reports that appeared in a section of the press that India's maps had been confiscated by Chinese authorities from the country's pavilion at World Expo 2010. "I have seen a report in the Times of India about the alleged confiscation of some printed material depicting the Indian map... there is no factual basis to this report," a ministry spokesperson said.

According to the newspaper, officials of China's Public Security Bureau (PSB) barged into the Indian pavilion at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai and seized brochures bearing India's map, saying they were taking away the maps because China objected to showing northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh as a part of Indian territory. The spokesperson, however said, "there has been no interference in the functioning of our pavilion at the Shanghai Expo."

China had recently refused visa to an Indian Army general on the grounds that he commanded troops in Indian-held Kashmir, which it described as a disputed area. China said on Monday that it had not received any word from New Delhi that it had suspended military exchanges over the refusal of visa. An anonymous senior Indian official was quoted as saying in The Hindu on Saturday that future military exchanges and a joint exercise between Indian and Chinese defence forces would remain suspended until China resolved the issue.

"China did not suspend military exchanges with India, nor did it receive any communication from India about a suspension of exchanges between the two militaries," China's Ministry of National Defence said in a statement faxed to The Associated Press in response to questions.