EAM S Jaishankar conveys India’s protest in strongest terms to Chinese counterpart Wang Yi

PM Narendra Modi on Wednesday sent a strong message to China, stating that India will protect its territorial integrity and will not shy away from responding , if provoked. While stating that India wants peace, PM Modi said that India is capable of responding when the need arises.

Assuring the citizens’ that the sacrifices of jawans will not go in vain, PM Modi paid tribute to the martyrs.

“Humaare jawaan maarte maarte mare hai,”

he said.

He also paid a 2-minute silent tribute to the martyrs at the meeting with chief ministers.

PM Modi has called for an all-party meet to discuss the ongoing India-China situation. The virtual meet, to be attended by presidents of various political parties, will be held on June 19 at 5 PM. The Chinese PLA may have suffered a significant number of casualties” in the violent face-off between India and China in Galwan Valley on the night of June 15-16, according to an ANI report. The agency has also said that the Chinese Commanding Officer of the unit involved in the face-off is those among killed.

Tensions flared up on India-China Border in Eastern Ladakh’s Galwan Valley region as Indian Army and China’s PLA suffered casualties in a violent faceoff on Monday night. Indian and Chinese soldiers were in a eye ball to eye ball standoff in the region for over a month now. Indian Army on Tuesday said that there was loss of 20 lives on the Indian side.

The Indian Army statement said,

“Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area where they had earlier clashed on the night of 15/16 June 2020. 17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the standoff location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high-altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total that were killed in action to 20. Indian Army is firmly committed to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation.”

This is the first time in 45 years that Indian soldiers have been killed in a clash at the Line of Actual Control or LAC. The clash took place at Galwan Valley.