Twenty Indian soldiers were killed during a "violent face-off" with Chinese troops along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh. The incident occurred during a "deescalation process" underway in the Galwan Valley in the disputed Aksai Chin-Ladakh area, where a large troop buildup has reportedly been taking place for weeks now on both sides of the border.

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Twenty Indian soldiers were killed during a "violent face-off" with Chinese troops along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh.

The incident occurred during a "deescalation process" underway in the Galwan Valley in the disputed Aksai Chin-Ladakh area, where a large troop buildup has reportedly been taking place for weeks now on both sides of the border, before senior military commanders began talks earlier this month.

Monday's deaths are the first military casualties along the disputed border for more than four decades, Indian defense experts told CNN.

"We have not had casualties on the Line of Actual Control for at least 45 years," said Happymon Jacob, an associate professor and political analyst at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University. "This is perhaps a game-changer. This is perhaps the beginning of the end of the rapport that India has enjoyed with China for 45 years."

Former Indian Chief of Army Staff, General Bikram Singh, also confirmed to CNN this is the first such deadly incident in the last 45 years.

"17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the stand-off location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total that were killed in action to 20," the Indian Army said in a statement late Tuesday.

India's External-Affairs Ministry statement

"India and China have been discussing through military and diplomatic channels the de-escalation of the situation in the border area in Eastern Ladakh," said India's External Affairs Ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava on Tuesday.

He said senior commanders had "agreed on a process for such de-escalation" during a "productive meeting" on Saturday, June 6, and ground commanders had met regarding the implementation.

"While it was our expectation that this would unfold smoothly, the Chinese side departed from the consensus to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley," he said in the statement.

"Both sides suffered casualties that could have been avoided had the agreement at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side," he added.

"Given its responsible approach to border management, India is very clear that all its activities are always within the Indian side of the LAC. We expect the same of the Chinese side. We remain firmly convinced of the need for the maintenance of peace and tranquility in the border areas and the resolution of differences through dialogue. At the same time, we are also strongly committed to ensuring India's sovereignty and territorial integrity."

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman

In Beijing, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian accused Indian troops of seriously violating the consensus and twice crossing the border line for "illegal activities and provoked and attacked Chinese personnel which lead to serious physical conflict between the two sides.

"China has lodged strong protest and representation with the India side, and we once again we solemnly ask the India side to follow our consensus and strictly regulate its front line troops and do not cross the line and do not stir up troubles or take unilateral moves that may complicate matters," Zhao was quoted by CNN as saying.

"We both agreed to resolve this issue through dialogue and consolation and make efforts for easing the situation and upholding peace and tranquility in the border area."

Zhao did not comment on whether there had been any Chinese casualties.

According to CNN, China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) released a statement Tuesday night calling on the Indian army to immediately stop what it described as "provocative actions" and to "resolve the issue through the correct track of dialogue and talks".

"The sovereignty of the Galwan Valley region has always belonged to China," Zhang Shuili, the spokesman of the Western Theater said in a statement on China's Ministry of Defense website. "Indian troops violated its commitment, crossed the borderline for illegal activities and deliberately launched provocative attacks."

Zhang added that the "serious physical conflict between the two sides" had "resulted in casualties.

"We solemnly ask the India side to strictly regulate its front line troops, immediately stop all infringement and provocative actions, go toward the same direction with China, and return to the correct track of dialogue and talks to resolve differences," the statement read.

Galwan Valley

For the last five weeks in the Galwan Valley region of Ladakh, large number of troops from India and China were engaged in an eyeball-to-eyeball situation.

The stand-off in eastern Ladakh is in at least five key areas where India and China have had traditional differences on the perception of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the region. The present tension between the two sides came into sharp focus when reports of skirmishes between the soldiers of both sides were reported in the Pangong Lake region on May 5 and May 6.

According to Business Standard, starting in the third week of April, more than 5,000 Chinese soldiers of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) have intruded into five points in Ladakh - four along the Galwan River, and one near the Pangong Lake, the paper reported on Saturday, May 23.

India's major demand is the restoration of status quo before May, as beginning early May Chinese troops moved in large numbers into Indian territory at Pangong Tso, Galwan and Gogra in eastern Ladakh, and de-induction of troops by China.

Another concern is Chinese build-up at Finger 4 of Pangong Tso up to where India has always held territory, while it claims areas as far as Finger 8. In addition, China moved armor and artillery close to the Line of Actual Control on its side, a measure that India says is against the boundary agreements.

Tellingly, China and India do not agree on how long their border is. India gives a figure of 3,488 kilometres (2,167 miles). China does not give a number, but state media says the border should be just 2,000 km (1,250 miles) when China's claims in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh and other regions are taken into account.

In all, China claims some 90,000 square KM of territory in India's northeast, including the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh with its traditionally Buddhist population. India insists China occupies 38,000 square KM of its territory in the Aksai Chin Plateau in the western Himalayas, including part of the Ladakh region.

The Ladakh stand-off is the most serious since India and China, who fought a brief war in 1962, were locked in a similar face-off in Doklam, in the eastern Himalayas, that lasted nearly three months in 2017.

High-altitude face-offs have become more frequent in recent years. There have been four since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012.

The US administration has said this is a new sign of China's growing military assertiveness.

According to Ashley Tellis, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Beijing's concerns "appear to have grown since the August 2019 Indian decision to make Ladakh" a federally administered territory.

India's Hindu rightist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi annexed the disputed Jammu & Kashmir on August 5, 2019, heightening tensions with its nuclear-armed neighbors China and Pakistan.

Carnegie's Tellis believes the latest Chinese advancement in the Ladakh region leave India only with "painful" choices.

"Beijing has moved into disputed territories that did not host a continual Chinese presence as recently as January 2020," Tellis wrote.

China is ready to escalate

Indian defense analyst Pravin Sawhney says that the bloody standoff in Ladakh indicates that China is ready is escalate the situation but India is not ready.

According to Pravin, Chinese are not happy with Indian government's move on August 5, 2019, to integrate the disputed territory of Jammu & Kashmir and also declaring Ladakh as an Indian Union territory. Pravin believes that India has violated the Wuhan Summit (2018) consensus that China and India will be friend and not adversary but since then India has joined the Indo-Pacific alliance which is against China and also joined the anti-China Quad group of the United States, Australia, and Japan.

At the same time, Pravin added, India had ignored the Chinese proposal during the the second India-China informal summit, in Chennai, India when Chinese President Xi Jinping had shared with Prime Minister Narendra Modi his vision for trilateral cooperation among Beijing, New Delhi and Islamabad.

Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councilor Wang Yi had said "President Xi Jinping stressed the Chinese side sincerely expects sound China-India relations, China-Pakistan relations and India-Pakistan relations, and expects to see all sides work together to promote regional peace and stability, and achieve common development and prosperity."

In a reference to Kashmir after India scrapped special status for Jammu and Kashmir, Wang said "the recent strained India-Pakistan relations and unrest and turbulence in the region have drawn grave concerns from the international community".

Pravin argued that the then Army Chief of Staff General Rawat should have explained to the political government about the consequences of abrogating the special status of the disputed territory of Jammu & Kashmir. General Rawat should have warned about the geo-political implications of the move, which the Indian government calls an internal matter, he added.

He said that at present time Chinese are in a position to exercise military coercion, which they are doing. "They can move anywhere on the Line of Control for which India is not prepared. They made it clear that Ladakh doesn't to you and Line of Control doesn't exist."

Pravin said at this time we don't have any information about Chinese casualties in Monday's clash; if there are PLA casualties then they will take very hard position in the current standoff.

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Author of
Islamic Pakistan: Illusions & Reality;
Islam in the Post-Cold War Era;
Islam & Modernism;
Islam & Muslims in the Post-9/11 America.
American Muslims in Politics.
Islam in the 21st Century: Challanges, conspiracies & Chaos
Muslim Word in the New Global Order
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