The Indian Army on Friday said its troops had begun patrolling at Demchok along the Line of Actual Control and would soon resume its vigil at the Depsang Plains in eastern Ladakh, according to sources.

This comes nearly four-and-a-half years after access was blocked by the Chinese army following multiple transgressions at border points inside India-claimed lines.

India and China signed an agreement on patrolling arrangements at the two sectors, leading to disengagement at the Ninglung Nullah track junction near Demchok and the Depsang Plains.

“The patrolling by the Indian troops began in Demchok on Friday and the patrolling rights will now be fully reinstated to the pre-April 2020 situation,” said an army official with cautious optimism.

He added: “Patrolling in the strategically crucial Depsang sector is expected to begin soon.”

The Chinese army is believed to be entrenched 18km inside India-claimed lines at Depsang since the transgression at multiple border points in May 2020.

Sources said despite the latest disengagement process, the two armies, however, continue with forward deployments with around 60,000 troops, each equipped with tanks, surface-to-air missiles and other weaponry, positioned along the frontier in eastern Ladakh.

On Thursday, defence minister Rajnath Singh had said that the disengagement of Indian and Chinese troops at the two points was “almost complete”, adding that India wanted to go “beyond disengagement” but must “wait a little longer”.

A Chinese defence ministry spokesperson had on Thursday, however, declined to comment on reports that said both the countries’ troops had completed the disengagement at Demchok and the Depsang Plains and that patrolling was set to start soon at these points.

In the past, both sides had “partially” disengaged at four other points, including the Galwan Valley, by creating “demilitarised” buffer zones inside India-claimed lines, meaning Indian troops cannot patrol there.

Indian military veterans have flagged that the full restoration of the April 2020 status quo can happen only whenthe Chinese troops return to their side of the LAC from all incursion points in eastern Ladakh.

Ties between the two countries had nosedived following the violent clash between the two armies in the Galwan Valley in 2020 in which 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops were killed.