PLA unit CO ‘among casualties’ in Galwan

NEWDELHI: A People’s Liberation Army (PLA) unit commanding officer (CO) was among scores of Chinese soldiers killed in the June 15 Galwan Valley clash with Indian troops along the contested Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, people familiar with the matter said on Monday. The Chinese commander’s death was confirmed to the Indian side through diplomatic and military channels last week, said one of the persons cited above, asking not to be named.

China has not said anything about any losses it suffered in the hand-to-hand combat. At a regular briefing on Monday, the Chinese foreign ministry stalled a query on the number of casualties the PLA suffered.

The brutal clash at Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh resulted in 20 Indian deaths, including that of a CO. The Chinese

army possibly suffered more than twice the casualties, Union minister General V K Singh (retd) said on Saturday.

The Chinese CO’S body was among the bodies exchanged by the two sides after the clash was over on June 16, said another person cited above.

The moment Indian soldiers realised that their CO, Colonel B Santosh Babu, had fallen, they fought against the Chinese soldiers with all their might and killed 16 of them and inflicted life-threatening injuries on scores of others.

The seven-hour face-off involved three staggered clashes and saw the Indian soldiers put up a fierce fight against Chinese troops, who had been pulled out of another sector and freshly deployed on the disputed border to carry out the premeditated attack, as reported by HT on Monday. The clash involved 600 soldiers from both sides, with the Indians badly outnumbered.