ITBP personnel allegedly rough up Chinese trader at Nathula

GANGTOK, 17 Oct: Should the Indo Tibetan Police Force continue in the fashion that they seem to have adopted in patrolling the international border at Nathula, it will not be too much of an exaggeration to assume that the future of border trade is in serious peril.
Following close on the arrest of a trade from Tibet, Liangki Jiancen, at Sherathang trade mart last week by the ITBP [which handed him over to the Sikkim Police], comes the incredible report of ITBP personnel allegedly manhandling and beating up a Chinese trader at Nathula today.
Soon after the incident there was an adamant and stubborn standoff between the ITBP on one side and Indian and Chinese traders on the other side; the traders threatened to completely shut down trade indefinitely and it was only a written apology forwarded by the ITBP which soothed passions, sources inform.
With the written apology, which is a first of its kind for a paramilitary agency, trade was resumed but is not the same. In fact it only helped strain relations between the two countries and their respective authorities at the border which has been strained already due to several incidents at the border.
What led to the aggression of the ITBP was reportedly a slight delay on the part of the Chinese trader in question to proceed towards the trade mart at Sherathang from Nathula. Traders from the Tibet Autonomous Region of China who come in vehicles are lined up at the Nathula border once they cross immigration. From here they are to proceed in a supervised [by ITBP] convoy to the trade mart at Sherathang near Tsomgo.
What happened this morning was that as the Chinese were lining up in their vehicles there was a hold up as a particular Chinese trader was in conversation with an Indian trader who was getting ready to cross over into Tibet. Both were in the vehicles and the talk between the two was around trade, accounts and stocks etc.
The delay seemed to irritate the ITBP personnel who then caught the Chinese trader by the scruff of his neck, dragged him out of his vehicle and allegedly began beating him up. Even official from other agencies at the border, both from India and China, were reportedly speechless and could only look on stunned. Soon, traders from both sides gathered and threatened to stop trade altogether should the ITBP continue behaving in this way.
The Chinese trader who was beaten suffered some minor injuries and turned back. It is informed that senior ITBP officials soon arrived and offered a written apology and assurances that this would not happen again. After this, trade is reported to have resumed but traders from Sikkim are now apprehensive of being proffered similar treatment on the other side should the Chinese decide to replicate ITBP attitudes.