A senior Army commander on Saturday said there is a considerable Chinese presence in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, terming it a "cause of concern".
"There is a considerable amount of Chinese presence in PoK," General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) of Army's northern command Lt General K T Parnaik told media persons in Srinagar.
He said the Army has been officially informed that the Chinese presence in areas close to Line-of-Control was of engineers and workers for infrastructure development.
"Now there presence is mainly because of infrastructure development. We are aware that the Chinese are assisting in construction of a highway...a large number of dams and infrastructure projects have been developed by the Chinese in PoK as well as the northern areas. These areas are very close to the LoC," Parnaik said.
The GOC-in-C was speaking on the sidelines of the two-day "Army Mela" being held at the Regimental Centre of Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry, presided by state Governor N N Vohra.
Parnaik said: "Chinese presence in the neighbourhood has been a cause of concern."
"Officially we are told they are engineers and workers, and as of now that is how it stands. Whether they are workers or they are PLA (Peoples Liberation Army) soldiers, I would not want to comment on that as yet," he said.
