Following the agreement between India and China, that the troops will disengage the process that had started. On the night to June 15-16, the Indian troops were well within their own perceived area of the line of actual control.The troops were disengaging and the script went horribly wrong, the Indian Colonel was reportedly assaulted and hit by a stone and a baton which led to close unarmed hand to hand combat for several hours, there was a lot of pushing and jostling and in the commotion that followed many soldiers falling in the river, eventually dying because of extreme cold temperatures while no bullet were fired but sticks were used sources told NewsMobile.
The Chinese breached the agreement and clearly India was determined not to let go as they believed that putting pressure during COVID-19 may strengthen their territorial claims.
”They reacted aggressively and we stayed firm, and that riled them further but this clash is largely localised,” the source added.
Through the day the diplomatic channels worked on the feverish pace. Both Envoys, here in New Delhi and the Indian Envoy in Beijing were summoned. The blame game began, the Chinese blamed India for the clash, New Delhi countered their claims accusing them of trying to unilaterally alter the status quo.
This was the bloodiest clash since the 1962 war between the two sides and situation and clearly sources don’t rule out some more. The situation is tense and anything can happen, sources added.
Clearly the little wall of trust between the two sides has been breached and there will be an impact.
For over six weeks now both Asian giants were engaged in a standoff on atleast two locations on the 3,488 long defacto boundary between the two sides. They have been facing each other at the Galwan river which was near the site of the clash where this incident happened.
New Delhi will deal with Beijing with a different set of lenses in the Diplomatic arena, while on economy there will be greater curbs on Chinese companies in India. The boundary issue has dogged their relationship since the last several decades, the bloody night of Galwan is a wound not going to go away anytime soon.