After a series of meetings throughout the day on the Indo-Chinese situation, Prime Minister Modi met with senior officials. (File)
New Delhi:
The country’s highest political official and the army chief met late last night, shortly after the army confirmed that 20 Indian soldiers had been killed in a “violent confrontation” with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Minister of the Interior Amit Shah, Minister of Defense Rajnath Singh, Minister of Foreign Affairs S Jaishankar, Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman and army chief MM Naravane were at the meeting which took place around 10 p.m. It was the last in a series of meetings held yesterday as India weighed in on its response to the most serious escalation on the actual line of control, the de facto border with China, in five decades.
The ANI news agency quoted sources as saying, based on interceptions, that 43 Chinese soldiers were killed or seriously injured, although the army statement made no reference to it.
The army had confirmed Tuesday morning the death of a colonel and two jawans and “victims on both sides”. But in a later statement, the military added that 17 other seriously injured were “exposed to temperatures below freezing … (and) died of their injuries”.
India blamed the clashes on “an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo”, refuting China’s claims that Indian soldiers had crossed the border.
An Indian army source in the region told AFP that the incident was not a shooting but “violent hand-to-hand fighting”. The soldiers punched and threw stones at each other and Chinese troops allegedly used studded rods and sticks during the fight, which lasted for hours until midnight Monday, reports said.
The Chinese Ministry of Defense confirmed that the incident claimed lives, but did not give details.
The United States – which has growing friction with China but sees India as an emerging ally – has said it hopes for a “peaceful resolution” and is monitoring the situation closely.
The UN has called on both parties to “exercise maximum restraint”.
Beijing said the Indian soldiers “crossed the border twice … provoking and attacking Chinese personnel, resulting in a serious physical confrontation between border forces on both sides.”
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava, rejecting China’s aggressive claims, said the clash was “an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo” at the border.
The violence has followed weeks of tension since May 9, when several Indian and Chinese soldiers were injured in a clash involving punching and throwing stones at Naku La in Sikkim.
The massive escalation took place while the two sides were in talks to resolve border tensions and spoke of “consensus”.
Agence France Presse has cited sources and reports according to which Chinese troops have remained in parts of the Galwan valley and the north shore of Lake Pangong Tso that they had occupied in recent weeks.
India and China fought a brief war in 1962 during which China took the territory of India. Other deadly clashes followed in 1967, but the last violent clash that killed people took place in 1975, when four Indian soldiers were ambushed and killed along the line in Arunachal Pradesh.
In 2017, there was a 72-day confrontation after Chinese forces settled on the Doklam Plateau, on the border between China, India and Bhutan.
After that, Prime Minister Modi and Chinese leader Xi Jinping held two summits.
