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10 captives, Over 20 soldiers, including Commanding Officer killed at Galwan border clash with China

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Fists, stones and clubs: China and India's brutal high altitude, low-tech battle

AFPJune 17, 2020
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India and China have an understanding that their troops in the disputed and inhospitable border region will not use firearms. — AFP
India and China's militaries have some of the world's most sophisticated modern weaponry, but their deadliest scrap in over 50 years was fought using fists, rocks wrapped in barbed wire and clubs studded with nails.

There is an understanding between the nuclear-armed neighbours that despite their decades-old failure to demarcate their huge border, their troops in the disputed and inhospitable region will not use firearms.





The several hours of scuffles on Monday, reportedly involving hundreds of soldiers around 4,500 metres up in the Himalayas, left at least 20 Indians dead, according to the Indian army.

Indian [clutch: Fake News] media claim that 43 Chinese were also killed or seriously hurt — Beijing is yet to give casualty numbers — making it the deadliest encounter since 1967 and the first deaths in fighting since 1975.

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But unlike then, this time no shot was fired, with the victims bludgeoned with crude hand-made weapons, hit by stones or punched and shoved off a ridge onto rocks and an icy river below, reports and sources indicate.

Post-mortems so far showed that the "primary reason for death is drowning and it looks like they fell from a height into the water because of head injuries," one Indian official told AFP.

The NDTV and Network 18 television channels reported that 16 of the Indian soldiers were killed with blunt objects and four fell into the river.

'Rocks in barbed wire'
According to broadcaster India Today, last week Chinese forces returned and camped in an area that they had previously withdrawn from.

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Indian troops "dismantled" the camp and a scuffle left several soldiers injured.

The Chinese returned in larger numbers over the weekend and on Sunday stones were thrown.

The next evening, on a high ridge with a big drop towards the fast-flowing Galwan river, clashes erupted.

Matters escalated rapidly and several Indian soldiers tumbled into the icy water, while an unarmed Indian patrol team led by Colonel Santosh Babu set out to parley with the Chinese.

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But the Chinese refused to budge and attacked the Indians with boulders, rocks wrapped with barbed wire and clubs studded with nails, Indian reports said.

Colonel Babu was seriously injured. He would later die.

Forty minutes later, the same unit led by a Major returned and further fighting broke out, this time reportedly involving hundreds of soldiers and the Chinese outnumbering the Indians, raging until after midnight.

"When they [the Indian soldiers] were encountered by the Chinese soldiers they were overwhelmed and many were pushed down a harsh rocky slope," one security source told AFP.

"They came hurtling down like free-falling objects.”

'A cold desert'
Colonel S Dinny, who until 2017 commanded an Indian battalion in the region, said that the terrain is "extremely treacherous", with troops having to climb as high as 5,200 metres.

"It's a cold desert," he told AFP. "It takes a toll on the body and mind. The oxygen level is only 60 per cent of what is available in cities like Delhi, Mumbai."

And it's also confusing.

The area "is not demarcated on the map, there is no boundary. The maps have not even been exchanged so that the other person knows what someone is claiming. There are no boundary markers," Dinny said.

But retired lieutenant general DS Hooda, who headed the Indian army's Northern Command, said that there are detailed protocols that have ensured misunderstandings usually do not escalate — starting with the no-guns policy.

"If patrols come face to face, they will stand at a distance and unfurl banners. India's banner will show the Chinese are in their territory with a 'Go Back' and vice versa for China," Hooda told AFP.

"These are the sort of protocols that have been laid down by both countries and largely these protocols have been followed in the past and things have remained peaceful," he said.

"What we are seeing right now is a complete breakdown of the protocol," he said.

"In our time we revisited our protocol and our rules of engagement so that any disagreements can be handled in a more military fashion — rather than fighting it out like goons on the street."

Indian Colonel Babu is dead :(:(:(...

Baboooo nooo.... Babooooo!

4 sikhs are there

aur hamarai paas bachon ko khalistan k delusions hotai rehtai hain

They are all our enemies

The Sikhs should have been fighting for Khalistan not Hindustan. They failed their own faith.
 
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any member!
before ceasefire 1965 at 1200 clock (announced a day before).. India attacked and captured batapur for a bargain chip.. some analyst suggest that IA played the same move.. and got killed... @PanzerKiel @Zarvan
batapur was never captured by indians since batapur is west of BRB, they did capture dograi village on last night east of BRB canal
 
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35 Chinese soldiers killed. Why India public is angry with Modi? They shall be worshipping him for scoring since India army killed more Chinese than 20 Indian soldiers killed. Indian shall be celebrating on street about this great victory of killing 35 Chinese soldiers with lesser lost. :enjoy:
 
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ORDER FROM CHAOS
As India and China clash, JFK’s ‘forgotten crisis’ is back
Bruce RiedelWednesday, June 17, 2020


The deadly clash this week between India and China in the Himalayas is the worst crisis in their border quarrel since 1967. It may escalate to the worst since the 1962 Sino-Indian War, which almost brought the United States to war with China. The COVID-19 pandemic makes the current situation worse, it’s hard to be cool-headed in the midst of a humanitarian disaster on both sides of the disputed border. Pakistan is also a very interested player, watching the game play out just as it did in 1962 and hoping its rival India will be humiliated.

At least 20 Indian soldiers died in the clashes in the Ladakh region adjoining Kashmir on June 15. The Chinese have not provided any casualty figures. The fighting was primitive: No firearms apparently were used, just sticks and stones. Two states armed with nuclear weapons had a fist fight, with fatal consequences and an unpredictable outcome.

Two states armed with nuclear weapons had a fist fight, with fatal consequences and an unpredictable outcome.

The remote region where the clash is occurring is strategically important to both countries because it is close to where India, China, and Pakistan meet. In 1962, India was badly defeated by the Chinese, losing the Aksai Chin region of Ladakh in a matter of days. Unlike in other border zones where the Chinese whipped the Indians, China did not withdraw from its gains. China took almost 15,000 square miles of what had been India in Aksai Chin, and has kept it ever since. It maintains claims to even more of Ladakh — hence the ongoing dispute.

For decades, both sides have built up their transportation infrastructure to get troops and supplies to the Himalayan front line. A newly upgraded road, built by the Indians, appears to be at the center of the latest tension.

Both India and China have highly nationalistic governments in office. Both are very sensitive to any perceived slight. Prime Minister Narendra Modi now looks like the loser, not an image he is comfortable with. But he also knows that the Indian military is not ready to take on China. Just as in 1962, India today is militarily weaker than China.

In October and November 1962, Mao Zedong sent Chinese troops into the disputed territory along the border in Ladakh and into what was then called the North East Frontier Agency (NEFA) of India. The Indians were routed. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had no choice but to ask for help from Washington and London. President John F. Kennedy immediately ordered an airlift of weapons and supplies to India. The Royal Air Force joined in the airlift to rush equipment to India. A massive global operation was underway to help India.

It was not enough. A second Chinese offensive in November crushed the Indians in the NEFA and appeared to be driving to the Bay of Bengal. Nehru asked Kennedy for 350 United States Air Force jets and 10,000 crewmen to deploy to India to join the war and bomb China. The request was conveyed in an urgent letter which has only been declassified within the last few years. Before JFK answered the extraordinary request, Mao announced a unilateral ceasefire and pulled back his invaders in the north east, but they did not pull back in Ladakh.

Kennedy also had to deal with Pakistan, which was eager to grab more of Indian-controlled Kashmir for itself. Kennedy made clear to the Pakistani leadership that he would regard any Pakistani involvement as an act of war. Karachi backed down. Of course, Kennedy handled the crisis in South Asia at the same time he was dealing with the Cuban missile crisis and the very real threat of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Multi-tasking at its best.

Today, Pakistan’s relationship with China is far more extensive than in 1962. The two have exchanged nuclear secrets. China has invested tens of billions of dollars in building infrastructure to link western China to the Arabian Sea through Pakistani territory, especially at the port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea.

The Pakistani army is watching the latest flair up in Ladakh closely. The Pakistani intelligence service (ISI) hosted a very unusual meeting of the Pakistani high command at its headquarters in Rawalpindi after the news of the frontier clash came out. Pakistan has clashed with Modi’s India several times, including in deadly dogfights in the air.

The pandemic has hit all three countries hard. The virus is only making decisionmaking harder for all responsible leaders around the world. So far, none of the three leaderships has handled the pandemic very well.

There are many differences in the balance of power between 1962 and today, both regionally and in terms of global power balances. But the events of 1962 are very much on the minds of the leaders in China, India, and Pakistan. The past haunts the present, but history does not repeat. 2020 is not 1962. Neither Beijing, New Delhi, nor Islamabad had nuclear weapons in 1962. The risks of escalating the confrontation are immensely more dangerous today. All the players know that they have to avoid the worst. It’s too bad that the United States has a president who is certainly no JFK.



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