Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, June 19

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday reached Chandigarh Air Force Station to pay tribute to the soldiers who were martyred in a violent face-off with the Chinese at the Galwan Valley.

The mortal remains arrived here from Leh.

The Chief Minister laid wreaths on the coffins of the fallen soldiers.

Among the 20 troops, four soldiers were from Punjab, including a Colonel, who was killed in the fracas.

While the mortal remains of Nb Sub Satnam Singh of Gurdaspur and Nb Sub Mandeep Singh had arrived on Thursday, the mortal remains of Sep Gurbinder Singh of Sangrur, Sep Gurtej Singh of Mansa and Sep Ankush Singh of Hamirpur were airlifted to Chandigarh on Friday.

However, the mortal remains are being sent to their respective homes by road.

Earlier, the Chief Minister had the act of killing Indian soldiers as “horrendous” and demanded accountability for the loss of lives.

On Thursday, Captain Amarinder had announced that the state government has hiked the ex-gratia payable to martyrs from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 50 lakh.

Chandigarh, June 19

Advocating aggressive steps to take back the Galwan Valley territory seized by the Chinese, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday urged the government of India to issue an ultimatum to Beijing to vacate the occupied land immediately, with a clear warning that failure to do so would lead to serious consequences for them.

While India would also have to suffer some consequences of such an act, it could no longer afford to allow such intrusions and attacks on its territorial integrity to continue, said Amarinder, while talking informally to media persons at the Chandigarh airbase where he had gone to pay tributes to the jawans from Punjab and Himachal whose mortal remains were flown in from Galwan valley.

Laying a wreath on the mortal remains of Gurbinder Singh from Sangrur, Gurtej Singh from Mansa and Ankush from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh, Amarinder saluted their supreme sacrifice and said the nation was forever indebted to them.

Declaring himself to be totally against following an appeasement policy vis-a-vis China, he said past experience showed that when faced with aggression, the Chinese had always backed off.

It was time to call their bluff, he asserted, reiterating that every Indian wants a befitting response to be given to the Chinese.

The Chinese, with their salami-slicing tactics, had been nibbling into Indian territory piece by piece since 1962, said the Chief Minister, demanding an end to these intrusions, which 60 years of diplomacy had failed to stop.

Questioning the so-called agreement which prevented Indian troops from firing (even if they had weapons), Amarinder demanded to know who had come up with such an agreement.

“How can one have an agreement of this nature with a hostile neighbour?” he asked.

In any case, it was clear that the attack on Indian soldiers was a premeditated one by the Chinese, who had come prepared with their crude but deadly weapons, he said, adding that by carrying nail-studded and barbed-wire clubs and by attacking our troops they had abrogated whatever agreement was in place.

In the circumstances, the Indian soldiers had full right to retaliate using their own weapons, he remarked, adding that India alone could not be responsible for adherence to the terms of the agreement.

Unrelenting in his demand to know why the soldiers posted in Galwan valley failed to open fire if they were indeed carrying weapons, after their commanding officer fell, Amarinder said the colonel’s death at the hands of the Chinese was an insult to the entire Indian Army.

Asserting that he could not believe that the men at the LAC failed to open fire even after witnessing such a horrendous sight, he said the Indian Army is well-trained and equipped with the best of weapons, which it has every right to use when faced with such a brutal and treacherous attack.

The Chief Minister recalled that during his term with the Army, armed soldiers were always strategically deployed whenever their senior officers went for meetings with the other side, and were ready to jump in for a rescue operation if needed.

“Why were soldiers not so deployed in this case? And if they were, why did they not use their weapons to rescue the officers and men under attack?” he asked.

If the situation is allowed to escalate further, then China, in collusion with Pakistan, would get further emboldened to encroach into more Indian territory, which had to be stopped at all costs, said the Chief Minister. IANS

khmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Mansa, June 19

The mortal remains of Galwan martyr Sepoy Gurtej Singh, 22, were consigned to flames today at his native Birewala Dogran village in the Budhlada sub-division of the district. Gurtej’s father and brothers lit the pyre. A contingent of the Army played ‘The Last Post’ and a gun salute followed.

Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal laid the wreaths on behalf of the state government. “I am here to pay homage to Gurtej on behalf of the Punjab Government and the people of the state. I salute all mothers who send their brave sons to serve the nation,” said Manpreet.

On being asked about compensation, he said the government would provide Rs 50 lakh ex gratia to the family and a government job to the next of kin of the deceased.

Union Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal also paid homage to Sepoy Gurtej Singh at Birewala Dogran village by offering floral tributes. She said his sacrifice would not go in vain. Harsimrat also interacted with people, who requested her to establish a college in the village. She assured them that their demand would be pursued.

A large number of people from different parts of the district were present at the cremation. They bid a tearful adieu to the martyr.

Mansa DC Mohinder Pal, Budhlada MLA Budh Ram and MLA Najjar Singh Mansahia among others paid homage to the martyr. Congress leader and Member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi also sent a written message to the martyr’s family.

Majid Jahangir
Tribune News Service
Srinagar, June 19

A top officer of the India Army in Kashmir said on Friday that there was “no connection” between the spike in ceasefire violations along Line of Control in Kashmir and the tension along the LAC in the Ladakh.

The General officer Commanding (GoC) 15 Corps Lieutenant General BS Raju said he does not see any such major connection as of now between the CFVs in Kashmir and Ladakh situation.

“The CFVs by Pakistan along the LoC are happening as per the old strategy in which it wants to push in more terrorists into the valley. If there is one entity in the world who is not happy with the peace in the valley, it is Pakistan. The moment there is peace in the valley, it generates violence—both from across as CFVs as well as sending instructions to entities or its proxies within the valley to generate violence. I do not see any such major connection (between CFV and Ladakh situation) as of now,” Lt Gen Raju said during the press briefing in Srinagar.

Official figures reveal there has been a spurt in the ceasefire violations along the LoC in J&K despite the COVID-19 lockdown. Data compiled reveal that 1,632 ceasefire violations have taken place on the LoC from January 1 to June 2, 2020.

Most of the ceasefire violations have been occurring on the LoC in the Jammu division.

However LoC in Kashmir has also been hot. Four civilians and two soldiers were killed in different ceasefire violations on LoC in North Kashmir since January this year. Only last week a 40-year-old woman was killed and another injured in the Uri sector of Baramulla district in cross border shelling.

Lt Gen Raju said they were fully prepared at the LoC to ensure CFVs and infiltrations were kept in check.

“The existing CFVs have happened through a pattern and there has not been any great increase in the number of CFVs, but, definitely, some of them have been intense which inflicted some civilian casualties. We are taking proper measures to provide more security and safety to the civilian population. .We are fully prepared at the LoC to ensure that this particular phenomenon of CFVs and infiltration is kept in check,” he said.

Lt Gen Raju said the situation on the LoC and in the hinterland is stable.

“We will ensure that there will be no misadventure both from outside of the LoC and as well as within the valley. And we will ensure that the situation is kept normal and the people of the valley will be able to go about their jobs in the most normal manner,” he added.

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, June 19

The Uddhav Thackeray government is having second thoughts about going ahead with the Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) signed with Chinese companies for investing more than Rs 5,000 crore in the state’s automobile sector earlier this week.

The Congress party, which is part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in the state, has demanded that MoUs signed hours before 20 Indian soldiers were killed by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army on Monday be scrapped.

Congress party’s ministers in Thackeray’s Cabinet have told the chief minister’s emissaries that the government should not go ahead with the MoUs, sources said.

Industries Minister Subhash Desai too has indicated that the Maharashtra Government was awaiting further clarity on the matter from the Central government.

“The MoUs were signed before the clash between the Indian and Chinese forces in Ladakh. We will now abide with the Central government’s directives,” Desai told reporters here.

Under the MoU, China’s Great Wall Motors is to invest Rs 3,770 crore for taking over General Motors’ facility at Talegaon near Pune.

The company has also announced plans to gradually increase its investment to USD 1 billion to upgrade the factory.

Another Chinese company, PMI Elector Mobility Solutions has agreed to invest Rs 1000 crore in another factory at Talegaon while Hengli Engineering proposed to up a unit at an investment of Rs 250 crores.

State government officials say foreign investments in India have to be cleared by the Foreign Investments Promotion Board of the Central government.

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 19

Congress president Sonia Gandhi urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday to assure the nation that status quo ante along the LAC will be restored and China will move back from the current positions.

“The question is, what next? What is the way forward?  The entire country would like an assurance that status quo ante would be restored and China will revert back to the original position on Line of Actual Control,” she said in her remarks at an all-party meeting the prime minister had called on Friday to discuss the volatile situation.

Gandhi also asked the government to explain the sequence of events leading up to the death of 20 Indian soldiers and asked the government of it thought there was a failure of intelligence.

The Congress chief said the meeting should have come earlier in the day and asked the prime minister a series of questions.

Gandhi asked: “On which date did the Chinese troops intrude into our territory in Ladakh? When did the government find out about the Chinese transgressions into our territory? Was it on May 5th, as reported, or earlier? Does the government not receive, on a regular basis, satellite pictures of the borders of our country? Did our external intelligence agencies not report any unusual activity along the LAC? Did the Military Intelligence not alert the government about the intrusion and the build-up of massive forces along the LAC, whether on the Chinese side or on the Indian side? In the government’s considered view, was there a failure of intelligence?“

Gandhi said there was lack of clarity on the ground situation and that valuable time was lost between May 5 and June 6, resulting in the deaths of Indian soldiers.

“Even at this late stage, we are still in the dark about many crucial aspects of the crisis. We in the Congress Party believe that valuable time was lost between May 5 and June 6, the date on which the Corps Commanders meeting took place. Even after the June 6 meeting, efforts should have been made to talk directly, at the political and diplomatic levels, to the leadership of China. We failed to use all avenues, and the result is the loss of 20 lives as well as dozens injured,” Gandhi said, urging the PM to share with all the facts and the sequence of events beginning April this year till date.

On the way forward Sonia Gandhi said: “The entire country would like an assurance that status quo ante would be restored and China will revert back to the original position on Line of Actual Control”.

She also sought a briefing on the preparedness of defence forces to meet any threat.

“In particular, I would like to ask—what is the current status of the Mountain Strike Corps, with two mountain infantry divisions, that was sanctioned in 2013? Should the Government not treat it with utmost priority?” she asked.