Anti-China protests were held in several parts of the country as Delhi continues to stay locked up with Beijing in eastern Ladakh for over a month.
On Monday night–“in a violent face-off”–at least twenty Indian army personnel, including a Colonel, were killed. The face-off happened, as per the statement of India’s Ministry of External Affairs, “as a result of an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo there.”
The protests were held against China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in Jammu, Ahmedabad, Varanasi, Indore, Kanpur, and other places. People burnt Chinese flag printouts, A-4 size posters of Xi Jinping, the president, and China-made products, including a mosquito-killer racket.
In Indore, Madhya Pradesh, the protest was held by Congress workers on Tuesday evening, where they shouted anti-China slogans. In Ahmedabad, Gujarat, which is Prime Minister Nranndra Modi’s home state, protestors burnt flags and shouted anti-China slogans.
The statement sent out by MEA’s spokesperson Anurag Srivastava on Tuesday claimed: “India and China have been discussing through military and diplomatic channels the de-escalation of the situation in the border area in Eastern Ladakh.”
On Tuesday, Indian army also issued a statement, claiming, “Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area where they had earlier clashed on the night of 15/16 June 2020.” The army added that it “is firmly committed to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation.”
The army also claimed that both sides suffered the casualties. However, there has been no official word on this from China. On Tuesday, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian, said: “India troops crossed the border line twice on Monday provoking and attacking Chinese personnel resulting in serious physical confrontation between border forces on the two sides,” reported an international news agency, AFP.
“Indian troops on Monday seriously violated the consensus of the two sides by illegally crossing the border twice and carrying out provocative attacks on Chinese soldiers, resulting in serious physical clashes,” Global Times quoted FM saying.
