Twenty Indian soldiers were killed in clashes with Chinese troops high in the mountainous region of Ladakh where India and China share a border.
The incident is the first deadly clash in the border area in at least 45 years. Experts say, No Indian soldier has been killed and casualties of this magnitude has never occurred since 1975.
At first, the Indian army said that three of its soldiers had been killed, and that both sides suffered casualties. But later on Tuesday, officials said a number of critically injured soldiers had died of their wounds, taking the total that were killed in action to 20.
China did not confirm any casualties, but accused India in turn of crossing the border onto the Chinese side.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said India had crossed the border twice on Monday, “provoking and attacking Chinese personnel, resulting in serious physical confrontation between border forces on the two sides”.
However, India’s external affairs ministry accused China of breaking an agreement struck the previous week to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley. India has accused China of sending thousands of troops into Ladakh’s Galwan valley.
The cause of the recent tensions seemed to have been a strategic road connecting the region to an airstrip close to China, that the Indian army is building through mountain passes in the Galwan Valley. Military analysts say that the road is fully within Indian territory but that the Chinese are on a quest to frustrate India’s efforts to upgrade its military position.
‘It’s an extremely, extremely serious situation, and it will take real, hard negotiating skills to resolve this,’ former Indian army commander D S Hooda said.
Comments are closed.