The 17-year-old Indian youth who had gone missing near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China in northeast India's Arunachal Pradesh has been located by the Chinese Army and due procedure is being followed to bring him back to the country, NDTV said quoting news agency ANI.

"The Chinese Army has communicated to us that they have found a missing boy from Arunachal Pradesh and the due procedure is being followed," PRO Defence, Tezpur Lt Col Harshvardhan Pandey, was quoted as saying by the news agency.

The Indian Army had sought assistance from China's People Liberation Army (PLA) after the boy went missing on Wednesday. The boy - said to be part of a local hunting group frequenting remote areas along the LAC - was reportedly captured by the Chinese army near the Tsangpo River's entry into India; the Tsangpo becomes the Siang when it enters Arunachal Pradesh and the Brahmaputra River when it enters Assam.

"17-year-old youth Miram Tarom of Zido, Arunachal Pradesh was reportedly captured by Chinese PLA across the Line of Actual Control. Indian Army immediately contacted PLA through a hotline, assistance from PLA has been sought to locate and return him as per protocol," PRO tweeted on Thursday.

Miram Taron was reported missing Wednesday by Tapir Gao, the Lok Sabha MP from Arunchal (East), who told news agency PTI Taron and his friend, Johny Yaiying, had been abducted by the Chinese PLA. Yaiying "escaped from the PLA" and alerted the authorities, Gao told PTI over the phone from Ziro, the HQ of Arunachal Pradesh's Lower Subansiri district.

The area the boy went missing is the same in which the Chinese and Indian armies, as well as construction workers from China and local villagers, faced off in 2018 over the construction of a road.

In September 2020, the PLA allegedly kidnapped five boys from the Upper Subansiri district. They were released a week later, but not before the Indian Army reached out to defuse the situation. In March the same year a 21-year-old man was "abducted" by the Chinese from the same area, before he too was released after intervention from the Indian Army.

(SAM)