Chinese and Indian soldiers slug it out hand to hand

India-China tensions: Expert on potential military clashes

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Indian and Chinese soldiers have clashed along a disputed border in India’s eastern Arunachal Pradesh state, resulting in minor injuries on both sides, the Indian army announced today. A statement from the Indian army said troops from both sides “immediately disengaged” after the clash on Friday along the Tawang sector of India’s Arunachal Pradesh.

Without providing evidence, India-based Asian News International (ANI) claimed 300 Chinese soldiers had been involved.

Indian journalist Shiv Aroor tweeted: “My sources tell me recent Chinese troop increase at posts in Yangtse has kept tempers high in Tawang sector.

“On Dec 9, ‘larger than normal’ patrol party approached & was challenged. Stones flew, fists flew.

“Some fractures, blackeyes, bruises. 9 Indian & 22 Chinese troops injured.”

There was no immediate comment from the Chinese side.

In June 2020, a clash in the Karakoram mountains in the Galwan Valley in the Ladakh region set off tensions between India and China after soldiers fought with stones, fists and clubs.

At least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers died, and the countries stationed tens of thousands of troops backed by artillery, tanks and fighter jets along the Line of Actual Control.

The Line of Actual Control separates Chinese and Indian-held territories from Ladakh in the west to India’s eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims in its entirety. India and China fought a war over the border in 1962.

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After multiple meetings between military commanders, from a key friction point in Ladakh since the 2020 clash, but tensions between the two Asian giants have persisted.

Speaking to Express.co.uk two years ago, Tobias Ellwood, a former soldier and the chairman of Parliament’s defence committee, said: “It’s a bit like Kashmir between Pakistan and India.

“There are a series of localities around China which China has long-claimed going back decades.

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He cited a 1996 agreement banning guns from the Ladakh region, a similar situation to that which applied to Cold War Berlin to prevent conflict between rival soldiers.

He said: “To avoid that there is this large area in the Galwan Valley where no firearms are allowed which means that if you are going to have any impact you have go in there with bats and other things and go hand to hand in the old medieval way.

“But ironically it is abiding by the 1996 agreement.”

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