Galwan valley clash: Coursemates pay homage to Col Santosh Babu at National War Memorial
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- Published: January 11, 2021 19:37
New Delhi: The 16 Bihar regiment jawans who gave the Chinese PLA troops a bloody noise at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) are likely to be honoured posthumously on the Republic Day. They are likely to honoured with gallantry awards on Republic Day, reports said.
Colonel B Santosh Babu along with 19 Indian Army personnel were martyred while valiantly fighting Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh in June last year.
The June 15 clashes between Indian and Chinese troops marks one of the most violent military confrontation between two sides. Colonel Santosh Babu and his men took on the Chinese soldiers in a fierce hand-to-hand combat and inflicted serious damages.
China is yet to disclose the number of its soldiers killed and injured in the clash though it officially admitted to having suffered casualties. Reports said that at least 43 Chinese soldiers were killed in violent skirmishes.
The Galwan Valley clash had escalated the border row in eastern Ladakh and resulted in a large deployment of troops and heavy weaponry by both the armies in the friction points.
“Some of the Army personnel including Col Babu who displayed extreme courage during the Galwan clash are expected to be honoured on Republic Day,” said a source.
The Chinese soldiers used stones, nail-studded sticks, iron rods and clubs in carrying out brutal attacks on Indian soldiers after they protested the erection of a surveillance post by China around patrolling Point 14 in the Galwan Valley.
The Indian Army has already built a memorial for the ‘Gallants of Galwan’ at Post 120 in eastern Ladakh.
The memorial mentioned their heroics under operation ‘Snow Leopard’ and the way they evicted the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops from the area while inflicting “heavy casualties” on them.
Separately, the Department of Military Affairs is in process of inscribing the names of Colonel Babu and the 19 other soldiers at the National War Memorial in Delhi.
India-China military stand-off for 8 months
Meanwhile, the Indian and Chinese side are locked in a bitter military standoff in eastern Ladakh for the last eight months.
Nearly 50,000 troops of the Indian Army are currently deployed in a high state of combat readiness in the mountainous region in sub-zero temperature as multiple rounds of talks between the two sides have not yielded concrete outcome to resolve the standoff.
China has also deployed an equal number of troops, according to officials.
Last month, India and China had held another round of diplomatic talks under the framework of Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on India-China border affairs.