Amid Tawang Clash, 2021 Video of Indian Soldiers Roughing Up Chinese Troops Surfaces | WATCH

Days after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said Chinese troops tried to “unilaterally” change the status quo along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Yangtse area of Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang sector on December 9, a video of a similar incident from 2021 claiming to be the recent face-off between the troops has been spotted on social media.

According to a video shared by several news channels and senior politicians including BJP leader C T Ravi, Indian troops are seen thwarting Chinese PLA attempts to enter Indian territory at the LAC.

“Hit them on the head…maaro, maaro. Give it back to them…Chase them away,” Indian soldiers are heard saying in the video as they hit Chinese soldiers with batons and use fists to prevent them from advancing.

However, the video is not from the recent incident in Tawang, the Army said in a statement, according to an NDTV report.

The video of the scuffle in which Indian forces are heard speaking in Punjabi is likely to be from an incident at the Yangtse sector near the LAC in 2021, a year after the clashes at Galwan Valley in Eastern Ladakh. Twenty Indian soldiers were killed in the fierce clash with the PLA in June 2020, triggering the most serious military conflict between the two sides in decades.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, in a statement to Parliament on Tuesday, said: “The Indian Army bravely prevented the PLA from encroaching on our territory, and forced them to withdraw to their posts. Some soldiers from both sides were injured in the skirmish.” There were no fatalities or serious injuries to Indian troops in the scuffle, he said in his statement in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

China responded to the statement and said the situation along the border with India was “generally stable”. A day later, Senior Colonel Long Shaohua, spokesman of the Western Theatre Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) claimed that the clash on December 9 took place when its troops on regular patrol on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) were blocked by Indian soldiers. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters the two sides have maintained smooth communication on boundary-related issues through diplomatic and military channels. Wang, however, declined to provide details of the December 9 clash.

Following the incident, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for the de-escalation in tensions along the India-China border.

The recent clash took place even as both countries held 16 rounds of talks between their commanders to resolve the standoffs. The last round of talks was held in September during which both sides agreed to disengage their troops at Patrolling Point 15 in the Gogra-Hot Springs area.

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