A violent face-off took place at the border on Monday night, and an Indian Army Colonel, the Commanding Officer of an infantry battalion, and two soldiers were killed in the Galwan Valley.
"During the de-escalation process underway in the Galwan Valley, a violent face-off took place yesterday night with casualties. The loss of lives on the Indian side includes an officer and two soldiers. Senior military officials of the two sides are currently meeting at the venue to defuse the situation," read the official statement from the Indian Army.
According to reports, there are casualties on both sides. It was a physical fight and no shots were fired, the reports added.
Beijing has accused India of crossing border, attacking Chinese personnel, reported AFP.
Meanwhile, the editor of Global Times, an English-language Chinese newspaper under the People's Daily, has asked India not to be 'arrogant'.
Taking to Twitter, he wrote: "Based on what I know, Chinese side also suffered casualties in the Galwan Valley physical clash. I want to tell the Indian side, don’t be arrogant and misread China’s restraint as being weak. China doesn’t want to have a clash with India, but we don’t fear it."
In response, Indian Twitter had a simple yet befitting reply to the editor.
"Same to same, from India," a user wrote.
Here are some more reactions:
The two armies were locked in an over five-week standoff in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh. A sizeable number of Chinese Army personnel even transgressed into the Indian side of the de-facto border in several areas including Pangong Tso.
Following the standoff in eastern Ladakh, the two sides have deployed additional troops along the LAC, the de-facto Sino-India border, in North Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh in the last few days.
(With PTI inputs)
