India-China faceoff: Indian army officer, two soldiers killed in Ladakh

One commanding officer and two soldiers of the Indian Army lost their lives during a violent standoff between troops in the Galwan area in Eastern Ladakh on Monday night in a major escalation in the ongoing standoff between India and China on the border.

This is the first instance of casualties on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) since 1975.

“During the de-escalation process underway in the Galwan Valley, a violent face-off took place yesterday night with casualties on both sides. The loss of lives on the Indian side includes an officer and two soldiers,” the Army said in a statement.

Senior military officials from the two sides are currently meeting at the venue to defuse the situation, it stated.

However, Army sources said there was no firing during the face-off.

While it is learnt that casualties occurred on the Chinese side too, the details were not known. 

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian did not confirm the casualties but accused India of twice crossing the border and attacking Chinese personnel “which led to serious physical conflict between the two sides”.

“Our border troops had a high-level meeting (June 6) and reached important consensus on easing the border situation but astonishingly on June 15 the Indian troops seriously violated our consensus and twice crossed the borderline for illegal activities and provoked and attacked Chinese personnel, which led to serious physical conflict between the two sides and China has lodged strong protest and representation with the Indian side,” the spokesperson said.

Asking India to “follow our consensus, strictly regulate its front-line troops and do not cross the line, do not stir up troubles or make unilateral moves that may complicate matters,” Zhao said, “We both agree to resolve this issue through dialogue and consultation and make efforts for easing the situation and upholding the peace and security along the border area.”

The two sides have been undertaking limited disengagement in a phased manner in the Galwan area before the Corps Commander level talks on June 6 which was expanded to more areas in Patrolling Points 14, 15, 17A and Gogra areas after the talks.

Last Saturday, in the first acknowledgement of the ongoing standoffs, Army Chief Gen Manoj Naravane had stated that troops of India and China are “disengaging” in a phased manner from the standoff areas along the border following the series of ground talks and a lot of disengagement has happened in the Galwan river area.

The standoff began with a scuffle in the Pangong Tso area after Chinese troops came in large numbers and resulted in a large number of injuries on both sides. There was a second scuffle on May 9 at Naku La in North Sikkim.

(Source: The Hindu)