  We present theoretical analysis of the first data on the high energy and
momentum transfer (hard) quasielastic $C(p,2p)X$ reactions. The cross section
of hard $A(p,2p)X$ reaction is calculated within the light-cone impulse
approximation based on two-nucleon correlation model for the high-momentum
component of the nuclear wave function. The nuclear effects due to modification
of the bound nucleon structure, soft nucleon-nucleon reinteraction in the
initial and final states of the reaction with and without color coherence have
been considered. The calculations including these nuclear effects show that the
distribution of the bound proton light-cone momentum fraction $(\alpha)$ shifts
towards small values ($\alpha < 1$), effect which was previously derived only
within plane wave impulse approximation. This shift is very sensitive to the
strength of the short range correlations in nuclei. Also calculated is an
excess of the total longitudinal momentum of outgoing protons. The calculations
are compared with data on the $C(p,2p)X$ reaction obtained from the EVA/AGS
experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory. These data show $\alpha$-shift in
agreement with the calculations. The comparison allows also to single out the
contribution from short-range nucleon correlations. The obtained strength of
the correlations is in agreement with the values previously obtained from
electroproduction reactions on nuclei.
