What Is The Difference Between LOC and LAC - Defence News

Since the abrogation of Article 370, Pakistan has been regularly doing heavy firing on the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Border (IB). Prior to this, Indian and Chinese soldiers are fighting at the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Read this article to know the difference between LoC and LAC.

India has many border-related disputes with its neighbours China and Pakistan. Some time these border issues led to the escalation of war like situation among these countries. As a citizen of India, we should know the borders of our country and the cause of disputes with neighbouring countries.

In this article, we have published the difference between LoC and LAC. Before coming to the actual topic we should know the full form and meaning of LoC and LAC.

What is LoC:

LoC or Line of Control is a live line with a lot of activities like firing and face to face interaction. It is clearly demarcated by the militaries.

It truly denotes a kind of boundary separating parts of Indian UT i.e. Jammu & Kashmir; controlled by India and illegally occupied by Pakistan. The length of LOC is around 776-kilometers.

Indian part (southern and eastern parts of the region) of LOC is known as Jammu and Kashmir which constitutes about 45 percent of Kashmir.

What is LAC:

LAC stands for Line of Actual Control. It is a boundary between China and India. The concept of “Line of Actual Control” (LAC) came in a bilateral agreement in 1993, although there was no concrete settlement on ground positions between these two countries.

The LAC separates Indian-controlled territory from Chinese-controlled territory. It is a big empty region and nearly 50 to 100 kms distance is maintained by the armies of India and China.

The Chinese government considers LAC to be around 2,000 km while India considers the LAC to be 3,488 km long.

LAC is divided into three regions:

1. The western sector in Ladakh
2. The middle sector in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh
3. And the eastern sector which spans Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.

Now we are in the position to know the difference between LOC and LAC.

Difference between LOC and LAC;

Comparison	LOC	LAC
Full form	Line of Control	Line of Actual Control
Location	Three areas of Kashmir (Azad Kashmir, Gilgit and Baltistan)occupied by Pakistan and two-thirds, Jammu, Ladakh, and the Kashmir Valley, administered by India.(although whole Kashmir is an integral part of India)	It is scattered in three areas of northern Indian states: eastern (Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh), western (Ladakh, Kashmir), and middle (Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh).
Appearance	It is clearly demarcated by the militaries and a lot of activities (face to face confrontation, firings, etc) take place. Indian and Pakistan army is present here.	These are big empty regions and nearly 50 to 100 km distance is maintained between Indian and Chinese armies.
Area (Length)	776 kilometer (unofficial)	4,057 kilometer (unofficial)
Between	India and Pakistan	India and China

There is no clear cut demarcation at the LAC that is why standoffs have taken place many times like; Doklam in 2017,Chumar in 2014, Depsang in 2013 and Sumdorong Chu in 1987.

The same kind of situation exists at the LOC where Pakistan army using POK regions to send terrorists in India.

So the existence of border disputes is a reality with many countries around the world. Now we hope that after reading this article, you must have understood what is the difference between LOC and LAC?

Reference
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