CHINA SLAMS PAK REPORT ON DEATH OF INDIAN TROOPS

BEIJING: China’s official media on Tuesday “denounced groundless” reports by a section of Pakistani news outlets claiming the death of 158 Indian soldiers in attacks by People’s Liberation Army (PLA) amid a military standoff along the Sikkim border.

According to Dunya News, a 24-hour Urdu language news service in Pakistan, Indian soldiers were killed, and several others injured, on Monday in a Chinese rocket attack across the border. India’s external affairs ministry on Monday denied the report, calling it “malicious propaganda”.

A day later, China’s official and mainstream media also denied the report.

“Chinese mainstream media outlets on Tuesday denounced Pakistani media’s “groundless” report, which claims that over 150 Indian soldiers were killed in Sikkim due to a Chinese rocket attack,” the People’s Daily online said.

“According to an investigative report released by the People’s Daily on Tuesday, the Chinese embassy in India had noticed the report and has denounced its authenticity. Some Pakistani media outlets claim that the fake news is based on unverified information from social media and the internet,” the PD article said.

The nationalistic tabloid Global Times also published a report on Tuesday, calling the Pakistani media report “groundless and fake”.