The British daily – Guardian, which has been on a disinformation campaign against India over the issue of the current stand-off between the Indian and Chinese troops along the Line of Actual Control near Ladakh, was yet again caught peddling fake news regarding Chinese ‘intrusion’ into the Indian territory near Pangong Tso in Ladakh.
In its report titled, “Our pastures have been taken: Indians rue China’s Himalayan land grab”, Guardian made various assertions, a few backed by questionable data, to state that China has captured pasture lands in Ladakh.
We had reported in detail regarding how Guardian misled its readers by not only making false assertions pertaining the current India-China stand-off but also wrongly claimed that Chinese PLA troops had ‘intruded’ and ‘captured’ India’s territory at Galwan valley and Pangong Tso during the ongoing stand-off.
Continuing their propaganda, the Guardian went on to outrightly lie that the Chinese PLA troops had constructed military structures, including a radar tower, close to a ridge known as Finger Four near Pangong Tso in just the ‘last few weeks’.
In the report, it claims that according to the fresh images obtained by them at Pangong Tso, which according to it is a ‘freshwater lake’ on the border, which clearly showed them that there were substantial Chinese military structures, including a radar tower.
Fact check:
For starters, Pangong Tso, as claimed by Guardian is not a ‘freshwater lake’ but one of the highest brackish water lakes in the world.
Secondly, the claim made by the Guardian concerning the PLA troops constructing a radar tower at Finger Four at Pangong Tso within few weeks after the current stand-off is also an outright lie as satellite imageries suggest that the radar tower had already existed for several years.
From the Google Earth satellite imagery, the radar tower, which according to Guardian was constructed recently, it can be proved that the white-domed structure, which is believed to be a radar tower, was already existing even before the current stand-off started from May 5.
The Google Earth imagery for the area was last updated on April 6, 2017, which is at least three years from the current stand-off.
According to Defence Analyst Abhijit Iyer Mitra, the radar tower, which is claimed to constructed recently by the Guardian, was actually constructed by the Chinese troops in 2006 along with a shipping dock. A shipping dock can indeed be seen in the area close to the tower, with few ships docked there.
Btw @guardian do read the date on the image on google maps will you? I mean you can’t even do a rudimentary google maps fact check…. “newspaper of record” https://t.co/ZgZTrJSNHx pic.twitter.com/lVDgzzZjoW
— Abhijit Iyer-Mitra (@Iyervval) July 4, 2020
An August 2017 report by Colonel Vinayak Bhat (retd) also talks about the radar station and PLA Army naval station at the Pangong Tso Lake in the Sirjap Area. The report states as the area is surrounded by mountains, the radar can only monitor surface movements along the Pangong Tso lake.
In a hurry to discredit Modi government’s claims, the Guardian attempted to mislead its readers by making factually incorrect statements regarding the current stand-off between the two countries along the LAC.
Guardian cites Congress workers to make incorrect claims about Pangong Tso and Galway
Earlier, we had reported a detailed fact-check of the misleading Guardian in which it had over-enthusiastically spread false information regarding China ‘intruding’ and ‘capturing’ India’s territory during the ongoing stand-off between India and China.
The British daily had not only passed-off the claims made by a Congress worker as a local resident, without even referring to his political affiliation, to claim that China has occupied Indian terrorists but also went on to quote a 60-year-old individual, who according to Guardian had fought the 1962 India-China war, which was occurred 58 years ago.
The report had also falsely claimed that Chinese troops had captured Indian territories till Finger 4, which is also untrue.
The Guardian further quoted, a person identified as 60-year-old Tashi Chhepal, who according to them was a retired Indian army captain who fought the 1962 India-China war. However, Guardian made Tashi Chhepal, who is 60 year old currently, fight a war that took place 58 years back, making him the youngest soldier on the history.
