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Two men from Arunachal Pradesh have been missing for nearly two years from a remote location in the state along the India-China border and are believed to be in the custody of the People's Liberation Army, which so far has not acknowledged the duo's presence in their territory.
Batelum Tikro (35) and his cousin Bainsi Manyu (37) went missing from the Chaglagam area in the Anjaw district of Arunachal Pradesh on August 19, 2022, while looking for medicinal herbs at a high altitude area along the border with China and since then they have not been found.
"I have come to know that they were detained by the Chinese army," Tikro's brother Dishanso Chikro told PTI over phone.
Chikro said he has approached the local army authorities several times seeking information about his brothers.
"I am told that the issue was raised by the Indian Army with their Chinese counterparts. But no response has come so far," he said.
Anjaw MLA and state's women and child development minister Dasanglu Pul confirmed that the duo went missing along the border with China while looking for medicinal herbs.
The Chinese side has not yet acknowledged that the youths are in their custody. But I am told that they are still alive," she told PTI over phone.
After the two went missing, Chikro lodged two complaints of missing persons at Hayuliang police station (registration numbers: 0005/2022 and 0006/2022) on October 9, 2022.
It was mentioned in the complaints that 'some fellow villagers might have last seen them at border areas on August 24, 2022' but since then there has been no sign of the whereabouts of the duo.'
According to their Aadhaar cards, Tikro belongs to Doiliang and Manyu hails from Manyu Chiprogam of Anjaw district of Arunachal Pradesh.
Tikro is unmarried while Manyu and his wife have two very young children.
Anjaw district Zila Parishad Chairman Soblem Pul said that he has come to know that the local Army authorities raised the issue of the two men with the Chinese army at the flag meetings held along the border.
"I have no idea what was the response of the Chinese side at the flag meetings. The parents of the men keep telling us to do something. But we are helpless so far. We hope that they will return home safe and soon," he told PTI over phone.
This is not the first time that residents of Arunachal Pradesh have gone missing along the border or been detained by China's PLA.
However, in most cases, such people return home after a few days or weeks.
This is for the first time that no whereabouts have been found of two missing persons for almost two years.
In September 2020, the PLA allegedly abducted five youths from Arunachal Pradesh's Upper Subansiri district.
The youths were released about a week later by the PLA.
On January 18, 2022, a teenage boy, Miram Taron, was allegedly taken away by the Chinese forces from the Upper Siang district.
Taron was handed over to the Indian side by the Chinese army nine days later.
The latest incident of the two missing cousins comes amid a continuing stand-off between the Indian Army and the PLA in eastern Ladakh since April 2020.
India shares a 3,400 km-long Line of Actual Control with China from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh.
India has repeatedly rejected China's territorial claims over Arunachal Pradesh, asserting that the state is an integral part of the country.
China, which terms Arunachal Pradesh as South Tibet, routinely objects to Indian leaders' visits to the state to highlight its claims. Beijing has also named the area as Zangnan.
New Delhi has also dismissed Beijing's move to assign "invented" names to the area, saying it does not alter the reality.