Indian government sources, two soldiers deployed in the Galwan Valley and the families of the fallen soldiers said that the Indian soldiers who died in the India-China clash last month were unarmed and surrounded by a larger Chinese force on a steep ridge.
On June 15, twenty Indian soldiers died on the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The soldiers all belonged to the 6th Bihar Regiment.
Although no shots were fired, this clash resulted in the biggest fatality in combat between India- China since the 1967 war between the two neighbours.
According to talks with Reuters, Indian government officials said that the conflict began when the Indian commanding officer led a small group of Indian troops to Patrol Point 14 to confirm whether the Chinese soldiers had retreated from the site and dismantle their structures, as they had promised.
However, the Indian soldiers came under attack by the Chinese soldiers. The Chinese soldiers used iron rods and wooden clubs with nails studded in them to attack the Indian soldiers.
On the other hand, a China foreign ministry spokesperson blamed the Indian troops for crossing the LAC and provoking the Chinese troops.
The Chinese spokesperson said, “When Chinese officers and soldiers went there to negotiate, they were suddenly and violently attacked by the Indian troops,” and that “The rights and wrongs of the incident are very clear. The responsibility absolutely does not lie with the Chinese.”
One of the Indian soldiers deployed in the area of the clash stated that the Indian patrol was outnumbered by China’s People’s Liberation Army.
Families of the three dead Indian soldiers stated Indian soldiers were hit by sharp-edged weapons and had stones pelted on them by the large numbered Chinese soldiers.
A relative of one of the soldiers who accompanied the commanding officer, Colonel Santosh Babu, to Patrol Point 14 stated that the Indian soldiers were ‘unarmed’.
Four family members of the Indian soldiers said that after the deadly clash, few Indian soldiers managed to retreat to safety on the ridgeline, but when they could not find the commanding officer, they re-emerged and came under another attack from the Chinese soldiers.
According to the death certificates shown to Reuters, three of the dead Indian soldiers had their “arteries ruptured in the neck” and two sustained head injuries caused by “sharp or pointed objects”.
Indian soldiers who were ordered to bring back dead bodies of the fallen soldiers stated that few soldiers had pushed each other into the fast-flowing Galwan river.
This was confirmed by the government official in Delhi who also mentioned bodies of some soldiers being fished out of the river the next morning after the clash.
Some Indian soldiers had succumbed to hypothermia, the government official in Delhi added.
China has rejected an Indian government minister’s statement about China losing 40 of its soldiers during the clash.