Three Indian soldiers are killed in brutal hand-to-hand fighting with Chinese soldiers at border

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Three Indian soldiers are killed in brutal hand-to-hand fighting with Chinese soldiers at border point in Kashmir amid increasingly bitter clashes between nuclear powers

  • The ‘violent faceoff’ took place in Galwan valley in Ladakh region on Monday
  • India said there were ‘casualties on both sides’ but China didn’t comment
  • Statement said loss of life included an officer and two soldiers
  • The incident is first such confrontation between the two Asian giants since 1975 

By Harry Howard For Mailonline and Ap

Published: | Updated:

Three Indian soldiers, including a senior army officer, have been killed in a confrontation with Chinese forces along a disputed border area in the Himalayas.

The Indian army said in a statement on Tuesday that a ‘violent faceoff’ took place in Galwan valley in the Ladakh region on Monday night ‘with casualties on both sides.’ 

Troops from the two countries have been facing off along the disputed frontier for more than a month. 

After the latest skirmish, there was no comment from China.      

‘The loss of lives on the Indian side includes an officer and two soldiers,’ India’s statement said. 

Three Indian soldiers, including a senior army officer, have been killed in a confrontation with Chinese forces along a disputed border area in the Himalayas

The Indian army said in a statement on Tuesday that a 'violent faceoff' took place in Galwan valley in the Ladakh region on Monday night 'with casualties on both sides.' Pictured: File photo

The Indian army said in a statement on Tuesday that a ‘violent faceoff’ took place in Galwan valley in the Ladakh region on Monday night ‘with casualties on both sides.’ Pictured: File photo 

The 1962 Sino-Indian War

Aksai Chin is located either in the Indian state of Ladakh or the Chinese region of Xinjiang.

It is an almost uninhabited high-altitude scrub land traversed by the Xinjiang-Tibet Highway.

The other disputed territory is hundreds of miles away to the east of Tibet. 

The 1962 Sino-Indian War was fought on these two frontiers as Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru put it, a struggle over land where ‘not even a blade of grass grows.’ 

Chinese motivations for the war centred on percieved efforts by India to subvert Beijing’s interests in Tibet.

Just a few years before the war, the Indians had granted asylum to the Dalai Lama after the 1959 Tibetan uprising.

According to the CIA at the time, the Chinese ‘were motivated to attack by one primary consideration – their determination to retain the ground on which PLA forces stood in 1962 and to punish the Indians for trying to take that ground.’

Indian motivations included, testing Chinese resolve, testing who the Soviets would back and to garner sympathy from the United States. 

‘Senior military officials of the two sides are currently meeting at the venue to defuse the situation.’

The incident is the first such confrontation between the two Asian giants since 1975 in which soldiers have died.

Thousands of soldiers from the two countries, backed by armored trucks and artillery, have been facing off just a few hundred yards apart for more than a month in the Ladakh region near Tibet. 

Army officers and diplomats have held a series of meetings to try to end the impasse, with no breakthrough.

Indian officials say Chinese soldiers crossed the boundary in Ladakh in early May at three different points, erecting tents and guard posts and ignoring verbal warnings to leave. 

That triggered shouting matches, stone-throwing and fistfights, much of it replayed on television news channels and social media.

India says China is occupying 38,000 sq km of its territory. The two countries have fought only one war over the territory, in 1962. India suffered a humiliating defeat.   

In 2017, Indian troops mobilised in the Doklam region near Bhutan after Chinese soldiers threatened to build a road there, which India’s external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj described as a threat to India’s security. 

Later that year, soldiers of the two countries were seen fighting against each other near the Ladakh  region in north west India, after 8,000 Indian troops were sent to counter-act Chinese officers carrying out incursions on the Line of Actual Control.  

Relations were believed to have eased following two meetings between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in recent years.

Troops from the two countries have been facing off along the disputed frontier for more than a month (file photo)

Troops from the two countries have been facing off along the disputed frontier for more than a month (file photo)

Relations were believed to have eased following two meetings between Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (right) in recent years. Pictured: The pair at a meeting in India in 2014

Relations were believed to have eased following two meetings between Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (right) in recent years. Pictured: The pair at a meeting in India in 2014 

 The pair met in the Chinese city of Wuhan in 2018 while they also had talks in Chennai, southern India last October.  

The Indian and Chinese sides are separated by the Line of Actual Control (LAC), which is difficult to discern becuase rivers, lakes and snowcaps mean it can shift. 

India recently built a new road along the LAC in Ladakh, which reportedly infuriated Beijing. 

In the event of a conflict, the road could reportedly allow India to move men and material rapidly.