20 Indian, 35-43 Chinese Troops Dead In Worst Border Clash In 53 Years

NEW DELHI: Indian Army has said that it is firmly committed to protecting the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation as, in an official statement, it said that 20 Indian troops, including a Commanding Officer (CO) attained martyrdom in a bloody physical clash with a far-outnumbering Chinese group in the Galwan Valley area on Monday night.

The last deaths at the LAC were in 1975 when an Indian patrol was ambushed by Chinese soldiers in Arunachal Pradesh. A violent clash between the two sides on the border had taken place at Nathu La in 1967, where India had given a bloody nose to the Communist nation by killing 340 of its troops at the place.

The number of casualties on the Chinese side is reported in the range with a high of 43 (ANI Tweet) and 35, as per  ‘U.S. News’ that said, “sources in the American intelligence believes 35 Chinese troops died, including one senior officer“.

The clashes were triggered by an argument over the position of Chinese soldiers who were erecting a new post on the southern bank of Galwan river in a ‘buffer zone’ – a no-man’s land.

In the fight, some soldiers either fell or were pushed into the river, officers said. Some bodies were recovered from the river while others had signs of being brutalised. A few soldiers died of hypothermia.

Earlier in the day it was reported that during the de-escalation process, one officer and two soldiers were martyred:

#LestWeForgetIndia🇮🇳The Supreme Sacrifice of Col Santosh Babu, Commanding Officer, 16 BIHAR, Hav K Palani & Sep Ojha, during a violent face-off with Chinese PLA GF at #GalwanValley, Ladakh, 15 June 2020
The #IndianBraves stood their ground to defend territorial integrity of India pic.twitter.com/Z9vWPvyZuU

— LestWeForgetIndia🇮🇳 (@LestWeForgetIN) June 16, 2020

Later in the night, the army sources informed that the seventeen Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the standoff location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries.

The country who hid the origin of the Wuhan Virus and the resulting casualties, it was only natural to not mention the casualties at the hands of its enemy army. However, it did feel forced to accept the losses via the editor of the government mouthpiece ‘The Global Times’:

Based on what I know, 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.

— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) June 16, 2020

As per US News report (cited earlier), according to the U.S. assessment, the Chinese government considers the casualties among their troops as a humiliation for its armed forces and has not confirmed the numbers for fear of emboldening other adversaries, the source says.

Chinese state media described the incident Monday night in the Galwan River valley where both countries have deployed troops in recent weeks as “the most serious clash between Chinese and Indian soldiers so far,” confirming casualties but offering no further details about them.

from League of India