Indian and Chinese soldiers in hand-to-hand battle on border

AT LEAST 20 Indian soldiers have been injured, six of them severely, in handto-hand combat with Chinese troops in a remote border region.

It was that reported that the Chinese troops were armed with spiked clubs and Taser guns.

Tapir Gao, a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) official in Arunachal Pradesh, where the clashes took place, said Indian soldiers were attacked on Dec 9 in what would be the first serious flashpoint between India and China since at least 20 Indian soldiers were killed in clashes in Ladakh in 2020.

“Twenty Indian army soldiers were injured, among them six [with] severe wounds, after nearly 600 Chinese PLA attacked them along the LAC [Line of Actual Control] in Tawang in Arunachal

Pradesh,” Mr Gao said. “The Chinese soldiers came inside Indian territory and attacked our soldiers.”

An Indian army source said: “On December 9, PLA troops contacted the LAC in Tawang Sector, which was contested by [our] own troops in a firm and resolute manner. This face-off led to minor injuries to few personnel from both sides. Both sides immediately disengaged from the area.”

China still claims Arunachal Pradesh, a sparsely populated but strategically important Himalayan state that lies to the east of Bhutan, as part of South Tibet. An uneasy truce has been in force since the end of the war but the border, which extends for 2,100 miles, is poorly demarcated and troops and civilians from either side can cross into opposition territory by accident.

In June 2020, at least 20 Indian soldiers died in vicious hand-to-hand clashes with Chinese troops inside the Indian union territory of Ladakh.

Chinese troops allegedly bludgeoned Indian soldiers to death with homemade clubs and rocks, seizing at least 20 square miles of border territory.

“[This] latest incident is linked to Tibet and China’s planned sovereignty [over the wider Tibet region],” said Sushant Singh, a senior fellow at India’s Centre for Policy Research, a Delhibased think tank.

“Such incidents will continue to arise because of the difference of military, economic and technological power between the two countries. There is no easy solution to the border crisis.”

‘Twenty Indian soldiers were injured [six severely], after nearly 600 Chinese troops attacked them’