SRINAGAR: Three Indian soldiers, including a commanding officer, have been killed in a “violent face-off” with Chinese soldiers in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh, where the two sides have been ranged against each other over the past few weeks.
An official statement said: “During the de-escalation process underway in the Galwan Valley, a violent face-off took place yesterday night with casualties. The loss of lives on the Indian side includes an officer and two soldiers. Senior military officials of the two sides are currently meeting at the venue to defuse the situation.”
Since heard no shooting took place. The deaths were the result of violent scuffles & stone pelting. Regardless of the how & the way three Indian army personnel were killed by the Chinese in the line of duty.
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) June 16, 2020
This is a developing story. It will be updated as we learn more information.
Reports appearing in the media said that the two sides did not resort to any exchange of fire. A general impression is that the casualties were the outcome of stone-pelting. The media also said that there were some casualties on the Chinese side as well but the details were not known or revealed.
Meanwhile, China has released its version of the story. The Week magazine has lifted quotes from China-backed media outlet Global Times quoting the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian sying that incident happened because Indian troops got into Chinese territory.
“Despite China and India’s close communication via diplomatic and military channels aimed at easing border tensions, the Indian troops on Monday severely violated the consensus reached in the two countries’ army commander-level talks on June 6, as they crossed the border twice for illegal activities and launched provocative attacks against Chinese personnel, leading to serious physical conflicts between troops from both sides,” Zhao Lijian said. “China has lodged solemn representations with the Indian side and urged it to strictly restrain its frontline troops from crossing the border or taking any unilateral action that may complicate the border situation.”
It was later in the day that the Army said that Chinese Army also suffered some casualties but numbers were not immediately revealed. It was the China government newspaper The Global Times that confirmed the casualties later in the day. Hu Xijin, its editor in chief used twitter to tell part of the China story. “Based on what I know, Chinese side also suffered casualties in the Galwan Valley physical clash,” he said in one tweet. “Chinese side didn’t release number of PLA casualties in clash with Indian soldiers. My understanding is the Chinese side doesn’t want people of the two countries to compare the casualties number so to avoid stoking public mood. This is goodwill from Beijing,” he said in another tweet, almost seven hours later.
