Anger over Galwan rules as sober India-China border meeting ends on surly note

In this article Senior Journalist, Sanjib Kr Baruah states that the meeting that was held between India and China exhibits anger as both the countries have lost their defence personnel after a violent clash broke out between the two armies on Monday. The journalist also claims that many soldiers are believed to have fallen into the mountain river.

New Delhi: Understandably there was anger at Wednesday’s meeting between major-general ranked officers at Patrol Point 14 (PP 14) as sober-faced military delegations met each other, less than two days after soldiers of the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA were involved in a very violent fight that claimed the lives of at least 20 Indian soldiers with many injured.

Not much information is available on casualties on the PLA side due to secrecy norms that they operate with.

The PP 14 spot where the meeting took place is the same spot where the fight took place on Monday evening that continued past midnight. This is a vantage point up to which Indian Army teams patrol on foot and offers a view of steep Galwan river gorge. Many of the soldiers are believed to have fallen into the mountain river.

“The meeting was an angry one. It will take time to get over what has happened as both us and the Chinese lost boys in the fight,” a military source told ETV Bharat.

Dismissing a report that the military level talks have been called off, the source added: “Nothing could be resolved but the positive part is that they have agreed that more talks are needed and they have agreed to meet again. So more meetings at various military levels will continue.”

Among the fallen Indian soldiers was Colonel B Santosh Babu who himself was part of most of the ongoing military level talks. Along with him 19 more soldiers have died with the figure likely to rise further.

The military talks are part of a de-escalatory process of negotiations to ease off ongoing standoffs between the two armies in at least four points near the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Among the first of brawls was the fistfight on eastern Ladakh’s Pangong lake on May 4-5 followed by another one in north Sikkim on May 10. The Monday night fight at Galwan Valley was the most serious one marking an abrupt departure from the relative peace of about 45 years.

Meanwhile, the wreath-laying ceremony was held at Leh on Wednesday for the fallen 20 soldiers. The bodies are expected to be handed over to the next of kin in their native places by Thursday.