Hostility between India and China escalates to another level with the recent faceoff in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh on Monday night. While the casualty for India was declared to be 3 soldiers, the numbers got updated to 20 on Tuesday evening. The statement put forward said, “17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the stand-off location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total of those killed in action to 20.”
The face-off between India and China has been ongoing for weeks now, since May 6, near Pagong Lake in Ladakh. The Sino Indian faceoff regarding border escalated in Galwan Valley, which is a location on the eastern part of Ladakh. The scuffle between the Indian soldiers and soldiers of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) martyred 20 Indian soldiers.
A statement was put out by the Indian Armed Forces regarding the incident.
“During the de-escalation process underway in the Galwan Valley, a violent face-off took place yesterday (Monday) night with casualties on both sides. The loss of lives on the Indian side includes an officer and two soldiers. Senior military officials of the two sides are currently meeting at the venue to defuse the situation.”
The fight was instigated when 300 PLA soldiers attacked 50 Indian Soldiers on the night of 15th and 16th June. The faceoff did not involve any gun or bullet, instead, it was a brutal physical fight involving fist, stones, iron rods, and nail stubbed clubs. The skirmish occurred on the Indian side of the LAC of Line of Actual Control in the area of Patrolling Point 14.
After October 1975, when four Assam Rifle Jawans were abducted and killed by the Chinese border guards, this incident happens to the next biggest faceoff between these two powers in the disputed land of 3488kms, approximately after 45 years.
The External Affairs Ministry of India said the struggle was initiated by China who unilaterally tried to change the Status Quo of the disputed land. Whereas the spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that the blame is owed to India as Indian soldiers had breached the border two times on Monday, instigating retaliation.
ANI news agency said at least 43 Chinese soldiers were wounded or killed.
China admitted casualties via its newspaper agency, Global Times. The editor in chief of the newspaper, Hu- Xijin Tweeted, “Based on what I know, the Chinese side also suffered casualties in the Galwan Valley physical clash. I want to tell the Indian side, don’t be arrogant, and misread China’s restraint as being weak. China doesn’t want to have a clash with India, but we don’t fear it.”
India has previously engaged in warfare with China in 1962 in the infamous Sino-Indian War.
