Ajay Singh

On the night of June 15-16 nearly 600 Indian and Chinese soldiers were caught in skirmishes at an altitude of 13,500 feet along the steep embankment of the Galwan river. The six-hour clash in pitch darkness was a medieval encounter with the use of clubs, iron rods, stones and bare hands that saw 20 Indians—most of whom fell to their death in the icy waters of the Galwan river below—and 45 Chinese dead (35 as per US Intelligence accounts). No shots were fired, but it was the first loss of lives along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) since 1975 and marked a complete turnaround in Indo-China relations.

Chinese troops, who had set up a camp near Patrol Point 14 in the Galwan Valley, were supposed to have moved back as per disengagement talks between the two sides. They did move back initially but returned two days later in greater strength. (Apparently replaced by troops from other front-line units). Col Santosh Babu, commanding officer (CO) of 16 BIHAR went there along with his party to ask them to withdraw, only to be attacked and grievously wounded.  Seeing the attack on their CO, Indian soldiers attacked the Chinese camp, and that’s when the major blood-letting took place. Reinforcements from adjoining units arrived on both sides and the clash went on well past midnight. That clash and the deaths that occurred broke the uneasy peace—perhaps forever—that has existed along the LAC for more than 45 years.

The clash was the result of a series of incursions made by the Chinese in Depsang, Eastern Ladakh, along the Pangong Tso lake and even far off Naku La in Sikkim. The incursions had begun in March—taking advantage of the pre-occupation in battling the spread of Covid-19—and were obviously part of a plan. There were 660 ground and 108 air violations of the LAC in 2019—much higher than the previous years, and apparently preparations had been underway for a long time. China’s Western Military Region, which looks after the area opposite India’s 14 Corps, had already built up troops and heavy equipment on their side, before establishing themselves in areas of Depsang, Hot Spring, Galwan Valley and t