India, China armies reach consensus to disengage

June 23, 2020
New Delhi: India and China have reached a consensus to disengage in Eastern Ladakh following  11 hours long Corps Commander level talks,  sources said on Tuesday .

The dialogue was held in a cordial, positive and constructive atmosphere and there was a “mutual consensus to disengage”, they said

“Modalities for disengagement from all friction areas in Eastern Ladakh were discussed,”  the sources added.

The two countries’s  corps commanders had a  meeting  for a second time at Moldo on Monday to resolve the border issue and ease tension in Eastern Ladakh.  The first one was held  on June 6 to defuse the tensions in Eastern Ladakh.

14 Corps commander Lieutenant General Harinder Singh and South Xinjiang Military District chief Major General Liu Lin participated in the meeting.

Earlier, Major General level dialogue took place for three consecutive days after the bloody attack at patrolling point 14 in Galwan Valley on June 15 night in which 20 Indian soldiers were brutally killed. The three talks were to ease out the tense situation and to get released 10 Indian soldiers, including four officers, who were in Chinese captivity.

South bank of Galwan river, which flows in an east-west direction before its confluence with Shayok river, was the scene of the brutal attack in which 20 Indian soldiers were martyred. Casualties also took place on the Chinese side but they have released no official figures.

This is the first violent incident on the border since 1975 when Chinese People’s Liberation Army had ambushed an Indian patrol in Arunachal Pradesh.

According to sources, Indian  soldiers were outnumbered by 1:5 ratio when they came under attack from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army troops at patrolling point number 14 on the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh.

The soldiers had gone to the spot where the clashes happened without any violent intentions  to check if the de-escalation agreement was being followed as promised.

A number of  Indian Army soldiers are currently “critically injured” and are were under treatment.

–India News Stream