Indian home minister Rajnath Singh said on Monday he believed the border standoff with China would end soon. Yet what the trespassing Indian troops did to their Chinese counterparts last week belies that belief.

The same day Singh made that remark, the Chinese foreign ministry confirmed that some Chinese border troops, who were carrying out normal patrols on the Chinese side of the line of actual control in the Pangong Lake area, suffered injuries from a "fierce assault" by Indian troops who obstructed their passage on Aug 15.

The Indian home minister also said that India wanted peaceful relations with its neighbors. Yet what the Indian troops did in the Pangong Lake area and the trespassing by Indian troops in Chinese territory in an attempt to block Chinese troops from building a road on Chinese soil in the Donglang area where the border is delimited are provocations that fly in the face of that sentiment.