NEW DELHI – China says four of its soldiers were killed in the border clash with Indian troops last year, which revealed the victims for the first time because of the nearby Himalayan group that killed 20 Indians and increased tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
India has revealed its view of what happened shortly after the incident in June, saying its troops were killed in the bloody skirmish in which soldiers wrapped rocks, batons and batons in barbed wire. China was silent on figures about casualties until Friday, when it announced posthumous awards for the four soldiers.
In the announcement, China blamed India, saying its troops had “deliberately provoked incidents” by unilaterally changing the “status quo of border control”, according to the PLA Daily, its main military publication.
Tensions have remained high for months between India and China, which share a 2,000-mile border. They pointed fingers at each other for the start of the fight and said the other side was breaking established rules and boundaries for troop movements.
According to Indian officials, the violence started after Indian soldiers arrived on the border in an area of the Galwan Valley to ensure that Chinese forces perish as part of an agreement between the two parties. They found that Chinese soldiers remained and began to build a new structure according to what India considered its side of the de facto border. This sparked an argument that led to the bloody clash.