How seriously do we take PLA's disengagement from Ladakh?

India must not get complacent, but maintain a close watch and ensure modernisation and replacement of weapons and equipment

- ANIL BHAT

In May 2020, after causing a global pandemic by leaking the Covid-19 virus from Wuhan Institute of Virology, China's Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) launched its second aggression (the 1962 Sino-Indian war was called the Chinese Aggression) on India in Ladakh.

On May 5, 2020, the first standoff began as a clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers at Pangong Tso (tso means a lake) shared between India and China—actually, China-occupied Tibet—with the Line of Actual Control (LAC) passing through it. A video showed soldiers from both nations engaging in fistfights and stone-pelting along the LAC. On May 10/11, in another clash, a number of soldiers on both sides sustained injuries. Indian media reported that around 72 Indian soldiers were injured in the confrontation at Pangong Tso, and some had to be flown to hospitals in Leh, Chandi Mandir, and Delhi. Reportedly, China occupied 65 square kilometers in this area.

PLA began amassing troops and fortifying its presence along the LAC since April-May 2020. Twenty soldiers were killed on June 15 in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh in violent clashes with PLA troops, who used crude iron rods studded with nails. Indian troops reacted fiercely but ironically without firearms, conforming to an agreement pressed by China since 1967 after the skirmishes at Nathu La and Cho La, Sikkim, of not firing at each other. In this retaliation without any firearms, while officially 43 Chinese soldiers were killed, according to some other reports, about 100 Chinese troops were killed.