Years after the major border clash between India and China in 1967, twenty soldiers were martyred at a faceoff between both sides at Ladakh in the eastern Himalayas.
On Monday night, a small group of soldiers got into a brawl in the Galwan Valley. It is said that China brought in reinforcements, and had attacked with stones and iron rods. When the commanding officer, who was a colonel, had been gravely injured and was fallen, the Chinese had attacked by ambushing the camp with more soldiers and stones.
Both the countries are currently under de-escalation talks.
Anurag Srivastava, who is MEA’s spokesperson, said in a statement that, commanders of two sides had held talks on June 6, agreeing on a process for de-escalation. This was followed by a series of meetings on the lower levels of command to implement the consensus reached at a higher level. “While it was our expectation that this would unfold smoothly, the Chinese side departed from the consensus to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley. On the late evening and night of June 15, 2020 a violent face-off happened as a result of an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo there. Both sides suffered casualties that could have been avoided had the agreement at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side,” he added.
ANI tweeted that Indian intercepts put the number of Chinese casualties at 43 that includes dead and injured. Increase in Chinese chopper activity was observed to airlift casualties.