NEW DELHI – China says four of its soldiers were killed in last year’s border confrontation with Indian troops, revealing for the first time casualties in the Himalayan corps that killed 20 Indians and caused tensions between neighbors with gunfire nuclear.
India revealed its views on what happened shortly after the June incident, saying its troops were killed in the bloody battle in which soldiers fought with stones, sticks and sticks wrapped in barbed wire. China was silent on the death toll until Friday, when it announced the posthumous awards for the four soldiers.
As it made the announcement, China blamed India, saying its troops had “deliberately caused incidents” in an attempt to “unilaterally change the status quo of border control,” according to PLA Daily, its main military publication.
Tensions remained high for months between India and China, which have a 2,000-mile border. They pointed fingers at each other to start the fight, saying that the other side was violating the rules and limits set for troop movements.
According to Indian officials, the violence began after Indian soldiers arrived in an area of the Galwan Valley on the border to ensure that Chinese forces were beheaded as part of an agreement between the two sides. They discovered that Chinese soldiers remained and began to build a new structure on what India considers to be its de facto part of the border. This sparked an argument, which led to a bloody clash.