New Delhi, Aug 29: India on Tuesday lodged a strong protest with China over its so called "standard map" laying claim over Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin, and asserted that such steps only complicate the resolution of the boundary question.

The External Affairs Ministry also rejected these claims as having "no basis".

"Just making absurd claims does not make other people's territories yours," External Affairs Minister Jaishankar told NDTV while reacting to the Chinese move.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said,"We have today lodged a strong protest through diplomatic channels with the Chinese side on the so called 2023 'standard map' of China that lays claim to India's territory."

"We reject these claims as they have no basis. Such steps by the Chinese side only complicate the resolution of the boundary question," he added.

India's strong reaction came a day after China officially released the 2023 edition of its "standard map" that claimed Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin as belonging to that country. The "map" also showed the entire South China Sea as part of China as it featured in the previous editions of the 'map'.

In early April also, Beijing announced Chinese names for 11 more places in Arunachal Pradesh which the neighbouring country claims as the southern part of Tibet, drawing a sharp reaction from New Delhi, which outrightly rejected Chinese renaming and asserted that the state is an integral part of India and that assigning "invented" names does not alter this reality.

It was the third batch of standardised geographical names for Arunachal Pradesh issued by China's civil affairs ministry.

The first batch of the standardised names of six places in Arunachal Pradesh was released in 2017 while the second batch of 15 places was issued in 2021.

The ties between India and China came under severe strain following the eastern Ladakh border row that began in May 2020.

The Indian and Chinese troops are locked in an over three-year confrontation in certain friction points in eastern Ladakh even as the two sides completed disengagement from several areas following extensive diplomatic and military talks.

India has been consistently maintaining that peace and tranquillity along the LAC were key for the normalisation of overall ties.

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Alipurduar: A 40-year-old man accused of raping and murdering a five-year-old girl was allegedly tied to a tree and beaten to death by agitated locals in Alipurduar district located in West Bengal on Friday evening. Later, another man surrendered before the police claiming he was also involved in the crime, and was subsequently arrested.

The girl went missing on Friday evening. When her family began searching for the girl, they learned that she had last been seen with Mona Roy, as reported by the Indian Express.

The police said that the girl’s body was found floating in a local pond. They added that the locals caught Roy and took him to his residence where they allegedly noticed blood on the bed. Enraged by this, they tied Roy to a tree and started assaulting him.

Roy was beaten to death before the local police could reach the spot.

When the police arrived at the scene, angry locals prevented them from moving the two bodies. Eventually, a large team of police personnel was sent to the location. After two hours, they were able to remove the bodies from the area.

The bodies have been sent for a post-mortem examination.

Meanwhile, a man named Bhakta Roy approached the police, claiming that he was involved in the crime and feared for his safety from the angry mob. He was subsequently arrested.

Y. Raghuvanshi, Superintendent of Police, Alipurduar, asserted it is a heinous crime, adding that they have started a detailed investigation in connection to the incident.