China

Indian, Chinese soldiers exchange blows along Naku La near Sikkim border, many injured

Representative Image.

Several Indian and Chinese soldiers reportedly got into a fist fight along the India-China boundary in north Sikkim on Saturday, two senior officials have told Hindustan Times on the condition of anonymity.

The tense face-off was reported near the Naku La sector, a pass at a height of more than 5,000 metres, said the first officer cited above.

Several soldiers were injured in the border stand-off as they exchanged blows.

“Four Indian soldiers and seven Chinese troops suffered injuries during the confrontation that involved around 150 soldiers,” said the second officer cited above.

He said the face-off was resolved at the local level, according to The Hindu.

Two officials Hindustan Times spoke to in the Army Headquarters denied knowledge of the face-off.

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The Naku La area was traditionally not prone to face-offs, a former top commander said.

This is not the first time Indian and Chinese soldiers have exchanged blows along the border. In August 2017, Indian and Chinese soldiers threw stones at each other and also exchanged blows near Pangong Lake in Ladakh, close to the de facto border between the two countries.

After a similar face-off in Doklam in 2019, then Indian Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that India was ‘ready and alert’ for any kind of situation in Doklam.

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Satellite images showed at least 100 vehicles and a very large number of tents barely 2 km from the Doklam plateau.

A report in The Print in January, 2019 also claimed that China has almost completely taken control of the northern side of the disputed plateau.

 

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