Sonia: If no Chinese on border, how did our 20 jawans die?

Ramping up pressure on the government over China, Congress on Friday observed the day as “Shaheed Samman Diwas” with party president Sonia Gandhi questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi on how 20 Indian soldiers lost their lives if there was no Chinese aggression on the borders.

Mrs Gandhi was speaking as part of a campaign #SpeakUpForOurJawans launched by the party in which a host of Congress leaders sent video messages in support of Indian soldiers who lost their lives and questioned the PM in the matter.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said: “The Prime Minister has to tell the country whether China has actually occupied Indian territory or not and whether Indian soldiers were sent to the border unarmed”.

Former minister of state for defence M.M. Pallam Raju said that China has now occupied our territory up to 18 km inside the LAC, in the Depsang plains, upto Y-Junction, Bottleneck, as per multiple reports.

“All these reports, observations by retired Generals of the Army, satellite imagery and defence experts suggest that China is now able to obstruct Indian patrolling between PP-10 and PP-13, which falls on the Indian limit of patrolling. Chinese forces are now 7 kms short of the Ladakhi town of Burtse, on the Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldie road.

“Reports also suggest that China has come as close as 25 kms from the crucial airstrip of Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO), that is within artillery range,” he claimed.