35 Chinese troops, including one senior officer, were killed in Monday’s Bharat-China clash in the Galwan valley in Eastern Ladakh as per American intelligence, reports Washington DC based news site usnews.com.
According to the U.S. intelligence assessment, the Chinese government considers the casualties among their troops as a humiliation for its armed forces and has not confirmed the numbers for fear of emboldening other adversaries.
Bharat has officially confirmed that 20 of its soldiers made the supreme sacrifice in the clash which took place after Chinese troops failed to honor the disengagement commitment made on 6th June during a senior officer level meet of both Armies. China was supposed to remove the temporary camp it had set up near the LAC in the Galwan valley region and pull back to its usual frontier post, but reneged on the agreement and ambushed Bharatiya troops who had gone on a patrol to verify the disengagement agreement.
The initial assault by the Chinese resulted in death of Colonel Santosh Babu (37), commanding officer of 16th battalion of Bihar Regiment, Havildar K. Palani and Sepoy Kundar Ojha. Other Bharatiya soldiers from the battalion rushed to the spot to avenge these deaths and clear the illegal Chinese encampment. In the ensuing hand-to-hand combat which continued till late into the night of 15-16 June, 17 more Bharatiya soldiers lost their lives and 43 Chinese casualties (killed or injured) were reported by Bharatiya sources.
China, unsurprisingly, has not released any official number of casualties on its side. It has blamed Bharat for ‘provocation’ and only confirmed “fierce physical clashes, resulting in casualties.”
The Indian Army has released the full list of 20 Bharatiya soldiers who were killed in action –
- Commanding Officer Colonel Bikumalla Santosh Babu from Hyderabad, Telangana
- Naib Subedar Nuduram Soren from Mayurbhanj, Odisha
- Naib Subedar Mandeep Singh from Patiala, Punjab
- Naib Subedar Satnam Singh (driver) from Gurdaspur, Punjab
- Havildar (gunner) K Palani from Madurai, Tamil Nadu
- Havildar Sunil Kumar from Patna, Bihar
- Havildar Bipul Roy from Meerut City, Uttar Pradesh
- Naik (Na) Deepak Kumar from Rewa, Madhya Pradesh
- Sepoy Rajesh Orang from Birbhum, West Bengal
- Sepoy Kundan Kumar Ojha from Sahibganj, Jharkhand
- Sepoy Ganesh Ram from Kanker, Chhattisgarh
- Sepoy Chandrakanta Pradhan from Kandhamal, Odisha
- Sepoy Ankush from Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh
- Sepoy Gurbinder from Sangrur, Punjab
- Sepoy Gurtej Singh from Mansa, Punjab
- Sepoy Chandan Kumar from Bhojpur, Bihar
- Sepoy Kundan Kumar from Saharsa, Bihar
- Sepoy Aman Kumar from Samastipur, Bihar
- Sepoy Jai Kishor Singh from Vaishali, Bihar
- Sepoy Ganesh Hansda from East Singhbhum, Jharkhand
(Featured image source: Lihkg.com user Somethink.More)
Did you find this article useful? We’re a non-profit. Make a donation and help pay for our journalism.
HinduPost is now on Telegram. For the best reports & opinion on issues concerning Hindu society, subscribe to HinduPost on Telegram.