Fists, stones and clubs: China and India's brutal thin air, low-tech battle
18 June, 2020
India and China's militaries have some of the world's most sophisticated modern weaponry, but their deadliest scrap found in over 50 years was first fought working with fists, rocks wrapped found in barbed wire and clubs studded with nails.
There can be an understanding between the nuclear-armed neighbours that despite their decades-old failure to demarcate their huge border, their troops in the disputed and inhospitable region won't use firearms.
The number of hours of scuffles on Monday, reportedly involving a huge selection of soldiers around 4,500 metres (15,000 feet) up in the Himalayas, left at least 20 Indians dead, based on the Indian army.
Indian media claim that 43 Chinese were also killed or seriously hurt - Beijing is yet to provide casualty numbers - making it the deadliest come across since 1967 and the first deaths on fighting since 1975.
But unlike then, this time no shot was fired, with the victims bludgeoned with crude hand-made weapons, hit by stones or punched and shoved off a ridge onto rocks and an icy river underneath, reports and resources indicate.
Post-mortems so far showed that the "key reason behind death is drowning and it appears like they fell from a good height into the water because of head injuries," a single Indian official told AFP.
The NDTV and Network 18 television channels reported that 16 of the Indian soldiers were killed with blunt objects and four fell in to the river.
'ROCKS IN BARBED WIRE'
Regarding to broadcaster India Today, last week Chinese forces came back and camped within an area that they had previously withdrawn coming from. Indian troops "dismantled" the camp and a scuffle kept several soldiers injured.
The Chinese returned in larger numbers over the weekend and on Sunday stones were thrown. Another evening, on a higher ridge with a huge drop towards the fast-flowing Galwan river, clashes erupted.
Matters escalated rapidly and many Indian soldiers tumbled in to the icy water, even though a great unarmed Indian patrol group led by Colonel Santosh Babu set out to parley with the Chinese.
But the Chinese refused to budge and attacked the Indians with boulders, rocks wrapped with barbed wire and clubs studded with nails, Indian reviews stated. Colonel Babu was seriously injured. He'd later die.
Forty minutes down the road, the same product led by a significant returned and additional fighting broke out, this time around reportedly involving hundreds of soldiers and the Chinese outnumbering the Indians, raging until just after midnight.
"When they (the Indian soldiers) had been encountered by the Chinese soldiers these were overwhelmed and several were pushed straight down a harsh rocky slope," one security origin told AFP.
"They came hurtling straight down like no cost falling objects."
'A COLD DESERT'
Colonel S Dinny, who until 2017 commanded a great Indian battalion in your community, said that the terrain is "extremely treacherous", with troops having to climb as high seeing as 5,200 metres.
"It's a cold desert," he told AFP. "It requires a toll on your body and mind. The oxygen level is merely 60 % of what is available in cities like Delhi, Mumbai."
And it's confusing.
The area "is not demarcated on the map, there is absolutely no boundary. The maps possess not even been exchanged in order that your partner knows what someone is claiming. There happen to be no boundary markers," Dinny said.
But retired lieutenant standard DS Hooda, who headed the army's Northern Command, said that we now have detailed protocols which have ensured misunderstandings will not escalate - starting with the no-guns policy.
"If patrols come in person, they will stand far away and unfurl banners. India's banner will express the Chinese are within their territory with a 'Move Back' and vice versa for China," Hooda advised AFP.
"These are the sort of protocols which may have been laid straight down by both countries and largely these protocols have already been followed during the past and things possess remained peaceful," he said.
"What we are experiencing right now is a complete breakdown of the protocol," he stated.
"In our time we revisited our protocol and our rules of engagement in order that any disagreements could be handled in a more military fashion - instead of fighting it out just like goons on the road."
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