‘Galwan heroes’ prone to be honoured posthumously on Republic Day

Colonel B Santosh Babu and among the different Indian Army personnel, who have been killed whereas valiantly combating Chinese troops within the Galwan Valley in japanese Ladakh in June final yr, are anticipated to be honoured with gallantry awards on Republic Day, sources mentioned on Monday.
Col Babu, the commanding officer of the 16 Bihar regiment, was amongst 20 Indian troopers who laid down their lives within the fierce hand-to-hand fight on June 15 within the Galwan Valley, an incident that marked some of the severe army conflicts between the 2 sides in many years.
China is but to reveal the variety of its troopers killed and injured within the conflict although it formally admitted to having suffered casualties. According to an American intelligence report, the variety of casualties on the Chinese aspect was 35.
The Galwan Valley conflict had escalated the border row in japanese Ladakh and resulted in a big deployment of troops and heavy weaponry by each the armies within the friction factors.
“Some of the Army personnel including Col Babu who displayed extreme courage during the Galwan clash are expected to be honoured on Republic Day,” mentioned a supply.
The Chinese troopers used stones, nail-studded sticks, iron rods and golf equipment in finishing up brutal assaults on Indian troopers after they protested the erection of a surveillance put up by China round patrolling level 14 within the Galwan Valley.
The Indian Army has already constructed a memorial for the ‘Gallants of Galwan’ at Post 120 in japanese Ladakh.
The memorial talked about their heroics below operation ‘Snow Leopard’ and the way in which they evicted the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops from the realm whereas inflicting “heavy casualties” on them.
Separately, the Department of Military Affairs is in technique of inscribing the names of Colonel Babu and the 19 different troopers on the National War Memorial in Delhi.
During a go to to Lukung ahead put up in japanese Ladakh on July 17, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh personally conveyed his appreciation and compliments to the troops from the Bihar regiment for displaying exemplary grit and braveness in combating the Chinese troops.
India and China are locked in a bitter army standoff in japanese Ladakh for the final eight months.
Nearly 50,000 troops of the Indian Army are presently deployed in a excessive state of fight readiness within the mountainous area in sub-zero temperatures as a number of rounds of talks between the 2 sides haven’t yielded concrete final result to resolve the standoff.
China has additionally deployed an equal variety of troops, in response to officers.
Last month, India and China had held one other spherical of diplomatic talks below the framework of Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on India-China border affairs.

The eighth and final spherical of army talks between the 2 sides had taken place on November 6 throughout which each side broadly mentioned disengagement of troops from particular friction factors.
India has all alongside been sustaining that the onus is on China to hold ahead the method of disengagement and de-escalation on the friction factors within the mountainous area.