New Delhi: Giving a deadly turn to a brawl that is replete with very deep implications, a bloody fistfight broke out on Monday night at the at least 17,000 feet high Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh between soldiers of the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA threatening a much bigger escalation in the already bellicose and uncertain relationship between India and China.
Information on the incident that took place in the very remote and uninhabited area has been sketchy.
A military source told ETV Bharat: “At least 20 Indian soldiers—including the commanding officer Colonel B Santosh Babu—have been confirmed to be dead and another 10 soldiers are still reported to be missing. Many have been injured.”
“On Monday, the PLA erected some temporary structures on our side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Our team led by the CO moved in and dismantled their structure. Initially the PLA seemed to have backed off but then they came back with about a thousand soldiers. The Indian side also had about a thousand soldiers. So a violent fight ensued. As the fight took place near the river back, many wounded soldiers fell into the river.”
This is the first big violent incident between the two militaries in the last 45 years.
According to multiple sources, the death toll is expected to rise substantially with scores believed to have been injured. Colonel Babu had been part of the delegations that has been talking to the Chinese side on the de-escalation process in the past few days.
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The PLA is also believed to have suffered casualties and injuries although no official confirmation was forthcoming from the secretive PLA or the Chinese state-controlled media till late night.
This is the first big violent incident between the two militaries in the last 45 years.
According to unconfirmed reports, the incident took place on Monday evening at patrol point 14 (PP-14). This is also the spot where the two armies led by their senior officials meet formally ensure ‘compliance’ as laid down in the de-escalation rules agreed to during a meeting of the corps commanders (lieutenant-general ranked) held at Chushul-Moldo on June 6.
While both militaries denied that a gunfight had ensued at PP 14, they accepted that a hand-to-hand combat took place well into the night which involved fisticuffs, stone-throwing and use of iron-rods and sharp instruments possibly including bayonets.
However, according to unconfirmed sources, quite a few of the bodies had bullet injuries.
For more than a month, the world’s two biggest armies had been engaged in a face-off in at least four different points spread across the Pangong lake, Galwan Valley and the Hot Springs area in eastern Ladakh. With tensions escalating, both countries had mobilized thousands of additional troops, heavy vehicles and artillery in the rear positions of the face-off points transported both through roads and air force sorties.
The buildup between the two nuclear-armed neighbours had led to violent brawls and face-offs between the two armies with the most serious one being the May 5 incident on the northern bank of the Pangong lake in which about 75 soldiers were injured.
But what would be very troublesome in the days to come is the new Chinese claim over the Galwan Valley on Tuesday.
Thus far, the stated position was that there was no dispute as to where the border lay in the Valley.
On Tuesday, external affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said: “While it was our expectation that this (de-escalation) 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 15th June, 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.”
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On Tuesday, the Chinese state-owned ‘Global Times’ quoted the PLA’s Western Theater Command spokesperson Senior Colonel Zhang Shuili as saying that “China always owns sovereignty over the Galwan Valley region”. If so, this will be a new dimension to the vexed India-China border issue.
The Galwan Valley is of immense military importance for India as its heights overlook a crucial 255-km long road that connects Shyok village to Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO), a major Indian military base located near the Karakoram pass, and the highest airfield on earth. The bone of contention here is the Chinese buildup point near the confluence point of the Galwan and the Shyok rivers.
