PLA Death Squads Hunted Down Indian Troops in Galwan in Savage Execution Spree, Say Survivors

A senior government official familiar with the debriefing of survivors at hospitals in Leh has told said, furious hand to hand fighting raged across the Galwan river valley for over eight hours on Monday night as People’s Liberation Army assault teams armed with iron rods as well as batons wrapped in barbed wire hunted down and slaughtered troops of the 16 Bihar Regiment. The Indian Army said late on Tuesday, the savage combat with few parallels in the history of modern armies is confirmed to have claimed the lives of at least 23 Indian soldiers including 16 Bihar’s commanding officer, Colonel Santosh Babu many because of protracted exposure to sub-zero temperatures.

One officer said, even unarmed men who fled into the hillsides were hunted down and killed. The dead include men who jumped into the Galwan river in a desperate effort to escape.

Government sources say at least another two dozen soldiers are battling life threatening injuries and over 110 have needed treatment.

A military officer with knowledge of the issue said, The toll will likely go up.

The fighting at Galwan began after troops under Colonel Babu’s command dismantled a Chinese tent sent up near a position code named Patrol Point 14 close to the mouth of the Galwan river. The tent had been dismantled following a meeting between Lieutenant General Harinder Singh, who commands the Leh-based XIV Corps, and Major-General Lin Liu, the head of the Xinjiang military district.

Inside two days of the disengagement agreed to at the two Generals meeting in Chushul though, the PLA set up a fresh tent at Patrol Point 14 inside territory claimed by India. Colonel Babu’s unit, government sources said, was ordered to ensure the tent was removed.