New Reuters satellite images show massive buildup on Chinese side of LAC
New Delhi:
Satellite images of the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh show how the clash between India and China erupted after days of construction.
The clash took place at a point called PP-14 or patrol point 14 a few kilometers from the actual control line (LAC), the de facto border between India and China.
New Reuters satellite images taken Tuesday show a massive buildup on the Chinese side of the LAC.
Troops from this region likely flocked to regions of India in the Galwan Valley, where hundreds of soldiers clashed Monday at a height of 15,000 feet in the Himalayas. Indian soldiers were attacked with iron rods, stones wrapped in barbed wire and studded sticks during the fight that began in the afternoon and continued until midnight.
Soldiers were even thrown from a high ridge into the ice Clashes between India and China in Ladakh explained by satellite maps Galwan River.
Indian soldiers observed Chinese ambulances carrying bodies and victims to the area. Helicopters took them to other places.
The region also experienced violent clashes in 1962, when Indian posts were overwhelmed. But in more than five decades, there has been no violence or active Chinese presence.
It is believed that the Chinese were seeking to target the new route to India, which links Daulat Beg Oldie in the north with Darbuk in the south.
On Monday, twenty soldiers, including a colonel, were killed in the line of duty. Their sacrifice will not be in vain, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his first comments on the shock of Ladakh, warning that India “is capable of giving an appropriate response if it is provoked”.
About 45 Chinese soldiers were also killed or injured, army sources said.
