The Indian Army personnel who lost their lives during the clash with the Chinese troops while securing the Indian territory from China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in Galwan, will be honoured by gallantry awards on Republic Day. Colonel B Santosh Babu and some of the other Indian Army personnel, who were killed on the fateful day. Col Babu, the commanding officer of the 16 Bihar regiment, was among 20 Indian soldiers who laid down their lives in the fierce hand-to-hand combat on June 15 in the Galwan Valley, an incident that marked one of the most serious military conflicts between the two sides in decades.
The Galwan Valley clash had escalated the border row in eastern Ladakh and resulted in a large deployment of troops and heavy weaponry by both the armies in the friction points. "Some of the Army personnel including Col Babu who displayed extreme courage during the Galwan clash are expected to be honoured on Republic Day," said a source. The Chinese soldiers used stones, nail-studded sticks, iron rods and clubs in carrying out brutal attacks on Indian soldiers after they protested the erection of a surveillance post by China around patrolling point 14 in the Galwan Valley. The Indian Army has already built a memorial for the ''Gallants of Galwan'' at Post 120 in eastern Ladakh. The memorial mentioned their heroics under operation ''Snow Leopard'' and the way they evicted the Chinese People''s Liberation Army (PLA) troops from the area while inflicting "heavy casualties" on them. Nearly 50,000 troops of the Indian Army are currently deployed in a high state of combat readiness in the mountainous region in sub-zero temperatures as multiple rounds of talks between the two sides have not yielded concrete outcome to resolve the standoff. China has also deployed an equal number of troops, according to officials. The eighth and last round of military talks between the two sides had taken place on November 6 during which both sides broadly discussed disengagement of troops from specific friction points.