Punjab CM calls for strong response from Centre on repeated incursions by China

It is time now for the Centre to take some stringent measures as each sign of weakness makes China’s reaction more "belligerent", Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said on Tuesday after three soldiers were killed in a violent confrontation with Chinese troops in Ladakh.

It is time now for the Centre to take some stringent measures as each sign of weakness makes China's reaction more "belligerent", Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said on Tuesday after three soldiers were killed in a violent confrontation with Chinese troops in Ladakh. "Our soldiers are not fair game that every few days officers and men should be killed or injured defending our borders," he said.

An army officer and two soldiers were killed in a violent confrontation with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley on Monday. "It is time now for India to stand up to these repeated incursions that are a blatant violation of our territorial rights and put a stop to such attacks on our territorial integrity," the chief minister said in a statement here.

Expressing shock and anger, Singh in a tweet said, "The happening in the Galwan Valley is a continuation of violations by China. It is time now that the country stands up to these incursions." It is time now for the government of India to take some "stringent" measures, he said. The chief minister asserted that every sign of weakness on the part of India makes the Chinese reaction more belligerent. It is important to defuse tensions at the border and India is not in favour of war, but the country cannot afford to show weakness at this time and needs to take a strong stand to deter the Chinese from any further intrusions and attacks on India's territories and men, Singh said. Even after brutally beating the Indian Army commanding officer and two soldiers to death, Beijing is feigning innocence, and trying to put the blame on India, accusing it of provoking the conflict through 'unilateral actions,' the chief minister said.

Such a reaction on the part of China was typical of its duplicity, he said, adding that the escalation of tensions in the Ladakh sector of the Indo-China border were the direct consequence of the incursions by Chinese troops into Indian territory. The Chinese actions were in direct violation of all the treaties signed between the two countries and a brazen assault on Indian integrity, Singh said. He urged the central government to take suitable steps to send out a strong message that it would not take such attacks lying down. Referring to developments on the Indo-Pak and Indo-Nepal borders in recent weeks, the chief minister said the country is clearly surrounded by forces seeking to destabilize its peace by taking advantage of the COVID-19 crisis. "Let them be warned that India will not compromise on national security at any cost, and is capable of combating external challenges even as it continues to battle the pandemic internally," he asserted.

Paying tributes to the soldiers who had lost their lives in the Galwan Valley violence, Singh said the whole nation today stands with the Indian Army in their hour of grief. The Army said India lost an officer and two soldiers during the violent face-off, while there were casualties on the Chinese side as well.

The extent of casualties on the Chinese side is not immediately clear. According to a senior military officer, it is the first incident involving the casualty of an Indian soldier in a violent clash with the Chinese Army after 1975 when four Indian soldiers were killed in an ambush at Tulung La in Arunachal Pradesh along the de-facto border between the two countries.

Official sources said there was no firing between the two sides. On June 5, too, the chief minister had urged the Centre to take a tough stand on the continuing border stand-off with China if the neighbouring country was not responding to diplomatic efforts to resolve the issue.