Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, Kiren Rijiju on Friday informed that the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) is likely to handover five youths from Arunachal Pradesh who had strayed across the border to the Chinese side earlier this month to the Indian authorities on Saturday.

Kiren Rijiju tweeted that, "The Chinese PLA has confirmed to Indian Army to hand over the youths from Arunachal Pradesh to our side. The handing over is likely to take place anytime tomorrow i.e. 12th September 2020 at a designated location."

The Chinese PLA has confirmed to Indian Army to hand over the youths from Arunachal Pradesh to our side. The handing over is likely to take place anytime tomorrow i.e. 12th September 2020 at a designated location. https://t.co/UaM9IIZl56
— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) September 11, 2020

The five men had been missing since September 1. The army had said that they were hunters and the locals, however, said they were porters. The Army had said in a statement that, "As a result of persistent efforts of Indian Army, five missing hunters from the Indian side of LAC in Upper Subansiri, who had inadvertently crossed over to another side on 2 September 2020, were traced. Chinese Army on September 8 responded on hotline and confirmed that the missing Indians have been found on their side. Further modalities to handover the persons to our authority is being worked out."

On Monday, China’s state affiliated Global Times tweeted quoting Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian: “China has never recognized so called ‘Arunachal Pradesh’, which is China’s south Tibet region, and we have no details to release yet about question on Indian Army sending message to PLA about five missing Indians in the region”.