New Delhi, July 4 :     The Chinese Red Army ??violated?? the Line of Actual Control (LAC) barely 500 km from the Kargil front and made ??incursions?? into northern Ladakh on July 1, stayed on for a few hours and then retreated to their own territory. A military intelligence report says that early on Thursday morning, a patrol of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) detected that a strong contingent of the Red Army, along with a convoy of six heavy, medium and light armoured vehicles, had breached the LAC. The report says the incursion took place at Tri Junction and Trig Heights in the northern sub-sector of Ladakh, north of Kargil, at 6.45 am on Thursday. Tri Junction and Trig Heights are strategically important locations in the Aksai Chin area, parts of which China had occupied during the 1962 war. The Chinese army personnel and the armoured vehicles were in Indian territory for about a few hours before turning back. The incident, which coincides with a crucial phase in the Kargil war, has sent alarm bells ringing in the Indian defence establishment. Defence sources are wondering why the Chinese violated the LAC. According to a senior officer, the Red Army was probably trying to ascertain what military preparations have been made by the Indians along the LAC following the flare-up along the Line of Control. But another officer said that by breaching the LAC, China wanted to show that unlike the Indian army, which had vacated vital posts in the Kargil sector allowing the Pakistanis to sneak in, it was in complete control of the occupied territories even 37 years after the Sino-Indian war. ??It is a signal that they continue to man the LAC,?? the officer said. ??It helps in keeping high the morale of their troops,?? he added. But it is the timing of the violation that has surprised the defence establishment. The Chinese are aware that India is fighting an undeclared war on a front less than 500 km away from the LAC. Besides, Beijing has not given Islamabad the diplomatic support it had expected, despite visits by the Pakistani Prime Minister and the foreign minister. Some defence ministry sources played down the ??incursion?? in an effort to stem panic. They said this was an isolated incident and too much should not be read into it. The sources pointed out that the Red Army had breached the LAC in the same region at least thrice in 1997 and also in 1998. Others, however, pointed out that in the mid-Eighties, China had quietly entered Indian territory in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh and occupied the Sum-Dorung Chu yak-grazing pastures during winter. No questions were raised about this incursion and China continues to occupy the land. Military sources said the entire Aksai Chi area, particularly, Tri Junction and Trig Heights, are strategically important for China because a toehold there would allow the Red Army to watch over a wide stretch of mountainous terrain, including Pakistan, Afghanistan and some Central Asian republics like Kazakhstan. Soon after the Sino-Indian war, Pakistan had given China some land in the Aksai Chin area. Besides, a road runs from Shin Qiang province in China to Pakistan.