Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 10: In flare-up of border tension between India and China, troops of the two countries were engaged in two fierce face-offs in Eastern Ladakh and near Naku La Pass in Northern Sikkim, leaving several soldiers on both sides injured.
In the first incident, scores of Indian and Chinese Army personnel clashed along Northern bank of the Pangong Lake along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh on the late evening of May 5 and the face-off ended next morning following a dialogue between the two sides, they said.
A number of soldiers on both the sides sustained minor injuries as they exchanged punches and resorted to stone-pelting, the sources said, adding around 200 personnel were involved the face-off. Both sides brought in additional troops following the fracas.
It was the first case of troops from both sides exchanging blows after a similar incident had taken place around the Pangong Lake in August 2017.
There was no official reaction or details about number of injuries on the Indian side.
PTI adds:-
In a separate incident, nearly 150 Indian and Chinese military personnel were engaged in a face-off near Naku La Pass in the Sikkim sector of the Sino-India border in which at least 10 of them sustained injuries, the sources said.
The personnel clashed and exchanged punches, they said.
“Temporary and short duration face-offs between border guarding troops do occur as boundaries are not resolved… Aggressive behaviour by the two sides resulted in minor injuries to troops,” the Army said in a brief statement.
“The two sides disengaged after dialogue and interaction at local level. Troops resolve such issues mutually as per established protocols,” it said.
The troops of India and China were engaged in a 73-day stand-off in Doklam tri-junction in 2017 which even triggered fears of a war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control, the de-facto border between the two countries. (PTI)
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