Twenty soldiers, including four from Punjab, died on Monday during the clash in Ladakh.
Chandigarh:
Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Friday called for “aggressive” measures to retake territory of the Galwan Valley “seized by the Chinese”, and urged the Center to issue an ultimatum to Beijing “to release immediately occupied lands. “
His statement came at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday in Delhi, at an all-party meeting, that no one had entered Indian territory or assumed any post.
“Advocating aggressive measures to retake the territory of the Galwan Valley seized by the Chinese, the Prime Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh, urged the Indian government to issue an ultimatum to Beijing to immediately leave the occupied lands, with a clear warning that failure to comply with this obligation would have serious consequences for them, “said a statement.
“While India should also suffer certain consequences from such an act, it could no longer afford such intrusions and attacks against its territorial integrity,” he said.
Singh said past experience has shown that faced with the attack, the Chinese have always backed down. “It’s time to call their bluff.”
“The Chinese, with their salami tactics, have nibbled on Indian territory piece by piece since 1962,” the chief minister said in a statement demanding an end to these intrusions, saying that 60 years of diplomacy had failed to stop such Chinese activities.
Questioning the “so-called agreement that prevented Indian troops from firing” during the confrontation with the Chinese on Monday evening, he asked: “How can we have an agreement of this nature with a hostile neighbor?”
“In any case, it was clear that the attack on Indian soldiers was premeditated by the Chinese, who had come prepared with their coarse but deadly weapons,” he said.
“By wearing studded lathis and barbed wire clubs and attacking our troops, they have repealed any existing agreements.”
Under these circumstances, Indian soldiers were fully entitled to retaliation using their own weapons, he said.
Singh said that the death of Colonel Santosh Babu at the hands of the Chinese was an insult to the entire Indian army.
He said the Indian military is well trained and equipped with the best weapons, and has every right to use them in the face of such a brutal and treacherous attack.
He recalled that during his tenure in the military, armed soldiers were always strategically deployed whenever senior officers went to meetings with the other party and were ready to intervene in a rescue operation, if necessary.
“Why were the soldiers not deployed in this case? And if they were, why did they not use their weapons to save the officers and the men attacked,” he said request.
“If the situation were to continue to deteriorate, then China, in collusion with Pakistan, would be more emboldened to encroach on more Indian territories, which must be arrested at all costs,” said the chief minister.
On Thursday, he asked “Why has no order to shoot the Chinese been given” in the face of the brutal attack on Indian soldiers in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh.
Twenty soldiers, including four from Punjab, died on Monday during the clash in Ladakh.
Meanwhile, reacting to the tweet by the head of the SAD, Sukhbir Singh Badal, accusing him of playing politics on the issue of the Galwan valley, the chief minister said that as a former man of the army, he had every right to express his opinion.
“With 20 soldiers dead, no soldier, in fact no Indian, can remain unchanged,” said Singh.
Contrary to the “deceptive image projected by Sukhbir”, Singh said that, like any Indian, he stood by the Indian government at this critical time.
In his tweet, Sukhbir Singh Badal said: “Let us all resolve with PM @narendramodi and the Indian army and support them by giving a strong message to China that # India will not allow transgressions at its borders. Also urge CM @ capt to avoid playing politics and let our generals make decisions about safeguarding our sovereignty (sic) “.
