Chandigarh, June 17, 2020: The mortal remains of Indian Army soldier Gurtej Singh, who laid down his life in the clash between soldiers of Indian and Chinese armies in Galwan Valley, Ladakh, on Monday night, will reach his native village Veerewala soldiers shortly.
Gurtej had joined the army just a year back. Twenty Indian Army soldiers were killed in the clash.
New Delhi [India], June 16,2020 (ANI): Indian intercepts reveal that Chinese side suffered 43 casualties including dead and seriously injured in the violent face-off in Ladakh’s Galwan valley, sources confirmed to ANI.
The violent face-off happened on late evening and night of June 15 in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley as a result of an attempt by the Chinese troops to “unilaterally change” the status quo during de-escalation in Eastern Ladakh and the situation could have been avoided if the agreement at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side, India said on Tuesday. At least 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the violent face-off, government sources said and added that the casualty numbers could rise.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said earlier in the day that both sides suffered casualties in the violent face-off and the Chinese side departed from the consensus to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held two review meetings over developments in Eastern Ladakh during the day. (ANI)
A violent face-off took place between Indian and Chinese soldiers in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley on Monday night in which 20 Indian soliders were killed. Defence minister Rajnath Singh issued a statament on Wednesday in which he mourned the loss of lives of 20 soldiers.
In his first comments since the clashes on Monday, Singh said that the loss of soldiers in Galwan is “deeply disturbing and painful”. He also said that India will never forget the bravery and sacrifice of soldiers who displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives. Singh had briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday evening and held two other meetings with the Chief of Defence Staff and the three service chief.
News agency ANI quoting sources said four Indian soldiers are in critical condition after the face-off.
The US media quoted reported from its intelligence officials to say that 35 Chinese troops have been killed in the clashes.
The troops fought each other with fists and rocks, people aware of the development said. Neither side fired any shots in the clash, they added.
After the clash, the two sides “disengaged” from the area where the fighting happened, the army said in a statement.
A protest was held outside the Chinese embassy in New Delhi on Wednesday.
The stand-off at Ladakh’s Galwan Valley has escalated in recent weeks due to the infrastructure projects that India has undertaken in the recent years. India is building a strategic road through the Galwan Valley – close to China – connecting the region to an airstrip.
China is opposed to any Indian construction in the area. In 1962, a stand-off in the Galwan area was one of the biggest flashpoints of the 1962 war, according to news agency Reuters.
India last year abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution, thereby ending the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. It further bifurcated the erstwhile state into two union territories – Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. China was among the handful of countries to strongly condemn the move, raising it at international forums including the UN Security Council.
Beijing said the move violated Chinese sovereignty but will also not change the situation on the ground as part of the area in the former state remains under Chinese control.
The Indian and Chinese armies are engaged in the standoff in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh. A sizeable number of Chinese Army personnel even transgressed into the Indian side of the de-facto border in several areas including Pangong Tso.
The Indian Army has been fiercely objecting to the transgressions, and demanded their immediate withdrawal for restoration of peace and tranquillity in the area. Both sides held a series of talks in the last few days to resolve the border row.
The violent clash that took place late evening and night of June 15 was a result of an attempt by the Chinese troops to “unilaterally change” the status quo during de-escalation.
“Beating 20 Indian soldiers to death Monday evening, China’s People’s Liberation Army has provoked the Indian nationalist tiger,” Journalist Tom Rogan wrote in an opinion piece in Washington Examiner.
Highlighting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s power flows from the nationalist base, Rogan said that Modi has skillfully redirected Indian nationalist sentiments away from their prior obsession with domestic sectarian interests and toward the idea of India as a key international player.
Rogan is of the view that PM Modi faces a distinct challenge with the recent violent clash with the PLA.
“He (PM Modi) will feel especially pressured to respond forcefully given perceptions in his Bharatiya Janata Party that he acted too timidly to a February 2019 attack by Pakistani terrorists. Adding fuel to the fire, this isn’t the first recent Chinese escalation against Indian interests,” Rogan said.
Over the past two months, the PLA has been increasingly aggressive along the Line of Control, frequently confronting Indian patrols on the assumed Indian side of the border, he noted
Chinese President Xi Jinping has also allowed the PLA to send aggressive officers to engage with more diplomatically minded Indian Army commanders. This is straight out of China’s now reflexively imperialist foreign policy strategy and is designed to intimidate India into compromises that favour Beijing.
Rogan said that the United States should stand with India in the border issue with China. “The world’s most populous democratic nation is facing the same Chinese aggression that Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines experience nearly every day in the South China Sea. And it poses an existential threat to the American-led liberal international order,” he wrote.
Shimla: After 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a stand-off with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh, the Indo Tibetan Border Police has stepped up vigil along the international border in tribal Lahaul and Spiti and Kinnaur districts of Himachal Pradesh.
The ITBP, a frontier force, were on alert after air incursions by Chinese helicopters were reported twice in Lahaul and Spiti district’s Sumdoh sector on April 11 and 20 and then in the first week of May.
The ITBP, which mans the international border, conducted fresh recces in the area to assess the movement of Chinese troops across the border. In a recent report sent to the Union home ministry, the ITBP said: “By and large the situation is peaceful but there is a lot of movement of civilian vehicles.”
The ITBP deputy commandant visited the border post at Lepcha to conduct fresh surveillance after the faceoff between Indian and Chinese troops in Ladakh. The army along with other intelligence agencies also took stock of the situation.
“There is no suspicious activity along the border here so far,” a police official said, requesting anonymity.
STATE INTEL UNITS ON ALERT
The Himachal Pradesh Police has issued an advisory to district police chiefs of the border districts of Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti, asking them to take precautionary measures to ensure security of the local population and also to collect intelligence that would enable them to draw the plan of action.
“All state intelligence units have been alerted,” said superintendent of police, criminal investigation department (CID), Khushal Chand Sharma, who is also the police spokesman.
Himachal Pradesh shares a 260-km porous border with China. Of the total border length, 140 km is in the tribal Kinnaur district, while 80km of the border falls in Lahaul and Spiti district.
SENSITIVE BORDER POSTS
Five battalions of the ITBP guard the border. In all, there are 20 ITBP posts along the Himachal border. The sensitive ones include Kaurik, the last village situated beyond Sumdoh. Besides ITBP posts are situated in Lakuma, Morrang, Morni, Dogri, Rishi Dogri, Domti and Niltah La.
The international border is jointly patrolled by the ITBP and the Indian military. Chinese army has been constantly strengthening its infrastructure along the border in Lahaul and Spiti and Kinnaur districts even as this frontier was peaceful during the 1962 aggression.
There are high passes along the Chinese border that forbids the troops from both sides to intrude into each other’s territory.
The main passes between China and India in Himachal Pradesh include the Khimokul Pass and Simthong Pass, located ahead of the Trungla Valley, which crosses into China-occupied Tibet.
Upender and Manjula, the parents said they had first been in disbelief but later accepted the truth after being informed by higher authorities about the face-off. Manjula, the martyred Colonel’s mother, told ANI, “We received the news, yesterday afternoon at 2 pm that my son has been martyred. I could not believe that my son has been martyred.”
“We are under deep shock, We could not believe it when we got to know about our son. I could not believe it as he was very brave. Since the last fifteen years, he had gained success. I immediately inquired from one of the officers. Later, several officers of the Army contacted directly through my phone. They said that they are making arrangements to get the body from that place to Suryapet,” Col Santosh’s father, Upender, told ANI.
He added that the body of his son will reach Suryapet by today evening, and also said that he has been given assurance of full support from leaders and officials, including MoS (Home) G Kishan Reddy.
“By tomorrow the body will reach here, along with my daughter-in-law and the kids, the officer told me on phone. Kishan Reddy spoke to me on the phone as well. All the delegates from Suryapet, including, Collector has given us assurance to support us at this time. An Army official has informed that the body will start in the day and reach Suryapet at around 4 pm via Chandigarh to Hyderabad and then Suryapet,” he said.
The violent face-off happened on late evening and night of June 15 in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley as a result of an attempt by the Chinese troops to “unilaterally change” the status quo during de-escalation in Eastern Ladakh and the situation could have been avoided if the agreement at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side, India said on Tuesday.
The Army confirmed that 20 soldiers were killed in the face-off including 17 who were critically injured at the stand-off location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain.
Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area in Ladakh where they had earlier clashed on the night of June 15 and 16, Indian Army said.
Chandigarh, June 16
Expressing anger over a violent clash in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday called for a strong response from the Central Government to the repeated violations on the Indian territory by the Chinese.
“It is time now for India to stand up to these repeated incursions that are a blatant violation of our territorial rights and put a stop to such attacks on our territorial integrity,” said the Chief Minister, asserting that every sign of weakness on the part of India made the Chinese reaction more belligerent.
While it was important to defuse the tension at the border, and India was not in favour of war, Capt Amarinder said the country could not afford to show weakness at this time and needed to take a strong stand to deter the Chinese from any further intrusions and attacks on its territories and men. Even after brutally beating the commanding officer and two soldiers to death, Beijing was feigning innocence, and trying to put the blame on India, accusing it of provoking the conflict through ‘unilateral actions’, the Chief Minister said. — TNS
The increased movement of the Chinese helicopter at the face-off location showed that and Chinese suffered a significant number of casualties in the violent face-off. “The assessment is based on the number of Chinese soldiers evacuated from the face-off location on stretchers and subsequently by ambulance vehicles on the track along the Galwan river, as also the increased Chinese helicopter movement,” said sources.
“The troops who were part of the face-off told about a significant number of Chinese casualties. Although it is difficult to specify the exact number of casualties both killed and wounded, the number is estimated to be much beyond 40,” sources added.
On Tuesday, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said that violent face-off happened on late evening and night of June 15 in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley as a result of an attempt by the Chinese troops to “unilaterally change” the status quo during de-escalation and the situation could have been avoided if the agreement at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side.
Srivastava said both sides suffered casualties in the violent face-off and the Chinese side departed from the consensus to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley.
Responding to media queries on the situation in the western sector of the India-China border, Srivastava said that India and China have been discussing through military and diplomatic channels the de-escalation of the situation in the border area in Eastern Ladakh.
However, according to American intelligence, 35 Chinese troops died, including one senior officer.
The violent face-off happened on late evening and night of June 15 in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley as a result of an attempt by the Chinese troops to “unilaterally change” the status quo during de-escalation in Eastern Ladakh and the situation could have been avoided if the agreement at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side, India said on Tuesday.
At least 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the violent face-off, government sources said and added that the casualty numbers could rise.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said earlier in the day that both sides suffered casualties in the violent face-off and the Chinese side departed from the consensus to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held two review meetings over developments in Eastern Ladakh during the day.
Colonel B Santosh Babu, who was the Commanding Officer (CO) of the 16 Bihar regiment
Naveen S Garewal
Tribune News Service
Hyderabad, June 16
A pal of gloom descended over Suryapet town of Telangana as the news of the martyrdom of Colonel B Santosh Babu, the Commanding Officer (CO) of the 16 Bihar regiment along with two soldiers reached the city following a violent face-off with the Chinese soldiers at Galwan Valley in Ladakh last night.
According to the family Colonel Babu died after hand-to-hand combat. He had been posted on the India-China border in Ladakh for the past 18 months and is survived by wife Santoshi and two kids, a daughter and a son.
Talking to the media the officer’s mother Manjula said: “I am both sad and happy,”. With tears in her eyes she added, “I am happy that my son sacrificed his life for the country but as a mother, I grieve his loss. He is my only son.”. Son of a Physical Education Teacher, he was a resident of Vidya Nagar in Suryapet and had studied at Korukonda Sainik School, Hyderabad.
Expressing her condolences, Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan wrote, “Let us pay our homage to Col Santosh Babu. The Valiant officer made the ultimate sacrifice today at Galwan Valley. I pray for all the martyrs and their grieving families. May God bless their souls (sic).”
Earlier, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami tweeted condolences to the family of Palani from Ramanathapuram district in Tamil Nadu, who was also killed in the violent face-off with Chinese soldiers at the LAC. 40-year-old Palani belonged to Kadukkalar village in Ramanathapuram.
