At least twenty Indian Army personnel including a colonel were killed in a fierce clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night. A 26-year-old Indian Army soldier, Rajesh Orang, also martyred in the violent clash in Ladakh and was the only earning member in his family and was due to return home in May.
Rajesh was among the 20 Indian Army personnel killed in the fierce clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff in the region.
According to report by India Today, Rajesh Orang, a resident of Birbhum in West Bengal, had been working with the Indian Army for 6 years. He was a posted at the 16 Bihar Regiment. Oldest of three siblings, Rajesh Orang, joined the Army in 2015.
As per India Today report, Orang came from a poverty-stricken background and was sole earning member of the family. He is survived by a sister who was waiting to get married, a bed-ridden father and an inconsolable mother.
Oldest of three siblings, Rajesh Orang, joined the Army in 2015 but the soldier died of injuries suffered in a hand to hand combat with the Chinese army at Galwan Valley in Ladakh region. His father Subhas told news agency PTI, "My son served the country and gave his life for it." Rajesh's mother Mamata was speechless. She was hoping to get him married when he came back on a holiday next.
The Army initially said on Tuesday that an officer and two soldiers were killed. But in a late evening statement it revised the figure to 20, saying 17 others who "were critically injured in the line of duty and exposed to sub-zero temperatures at the standoff location succumbed to their injuries."
It is the biggest confrontation between the two militaries after their 1967 clashes in Nathu La when India lost around 80 soldiers, while over 300 Chinese army personnel were killed in the confrontation.
