evidence: China sensed another opportunity during the India-Pakistan war of 1965. It accused India of violating the Sikkim-Tibet border by maintaining military installations on the Tibetan side, and issued it an ultimatum to withdraw; it also charged India with abducting 59 Chinese yaks.[36] On 19 September 1965, while the India-Pakistan war was underway, the PLA kidnapped and killed three Indian soldiers from across the LAC near Tsaskur in Ladakh.[37] The timing could not be missed: it sought to remind India of its vulnerability to the two-front situation. India did not escalate the matter as it could not afford to ignite a second front. As it was, the China-Pakistan border settlement agreement two years before in March 1963, whereby Pakistan ceded the Shaksgam Valley to China, had reinforced India’s fears of collusion between the two hostile neighbours. That India chose to abide by China’s ultimatum on the ceasefire during the 1965 war suggests that the latter’s manoeuvres succeeded in influencing the former’s decision.[38]