More than two years after the bloody clashes between the Indian Armed Forces and Chinese PLA troops in the Galwan Valley, a new book seeks to uncover details of the tragedy that has largely remained under the shadow of secrecy.
‘India’s Fearless 3: New Military Stories of Unimaginable Courage and Sacrifice‘, authored by HT’s Rahul Singh and India Today journalist Shiv Aroor, shines a light on the stark betrayal and treachery that has come to define the Chinese forces, besides other stories of awe-inspiring valour displayed by India’s uniformed troopers.
Published by Penguin Random House India, the book is available for pre-order and is set to release around August 15 details an incident about an Indian medic abducted by the Chinese PLA to treat their soldiers and later killed by them.
The book documents for the first time the sequence of events that unfolded at the Galwan Valley on the fateful night of 20 June 2020 and provides a first-handed account of the brawl between the Indian forces and the PLA troopers.
On June 15, 2020, the Chinese troops attacked the Indian troops along the LAC near the Ladakh border. The clashes had resulted in India losing 20 of its soldiers. Estimates at the time suggested China had lost 43 of its men. However, after months of denial, China officially acknowledged the loss of at least 5 of its soldiers.
The killing of the Indian soldiers marked the Indian Army’s worst losses since the Kargil War in 1999 and signified the most intense military combat between India and China since 1967 when about 80 Indian soldiers and at least 300 Chinese PLA troops were killed in the course of the savage skirmishes that broke out near the Nathu La and Cho Lo passes, the strategic gateway to the crucial Chumbi valley.
The fallen Indian soldiers in the Galwan Valley clashes were honoured by the government and their last rites were performed in the presence of government representatives and were accorded the due status of martyrs. PM Modi and the then COAS Bipin Rawat had also visited to meet and speak to the injured soldiers.
Naik Deepak Singh, the Indian soldier, was posthumously awarded Vir Chakra, India’s second highest wartime honour, for saving the lives of over 30 Indian soldiers. But, it was not known until now that the medic had also saved the lives of enemy soldiers.
“We have a number for how many Indian lives Deepak saved, but we don’t have a number for how many Chinese men he saved that night,” a report published in Hindustan Times quoted Colonel Ravi Kant from the book. Kant was the second-in-command of 16 Bihar when the Galwan Valley clashes erupted and took charge as a commanding officer after Colonel B Santosh Babu was killed in action.
“All I can say is that many of the injured Chinese men who survived that night definitely have Naik Deepak to thank. They were practically abandoned by their forces, while this boy was tending to their wounds. We are trained to take life to protect the country. But what can be higher than saving lives?” he was quoted as saying in the report.
Naik Deepak, tending to wounded Chinese soldiers, remained steadfast in treating the injured PLA troopers even as the situation around him continued to deteriorate. The book says he remained committed to tending the injured even as a rock from a mountainside came hurtling down and splintering into pieces on the ground next to him. The Indian side even warned the Chinese that they were targeting a medic administering first aid to the injured PLA personnel, the book mentioned.
Deepak was subsequently captured by the Chinese, who used him to treat the injured PLA troopers and later killed him.
The books shed light on the Chinese perfidy in the Galwan Valley, scars of which continue to inform the Indian Armed Forces’ caution in dealing with the Chinese.
The books shed light on the Chinese perfidy in the Galwan Valley, scars of which continue to inform the Indian Armed Forces’ caution in dealing with the Chinese. It reveals how the attack against the Indian forces was pre-meditated and how the Chinese tried to unilaterally change the status quo of the region by intending to impose a heavy toll on the outnumbered Indian personnel and force them into retreat.
Instead, they faced resilient and highly-determined Indian forces, who not put paid to the Chinese misadventure but also gave them a bloody nose. Havildar Dharamvir Kumar Singh, one of the members of 16 Bihar, while speaking to the authors of the book, recounted how Chinese forces were at least three times more than the Indian soldiers deployed in the Galwan Valley.
“There were less than 400 of us. We would soon discover that the number of Chinese soldiers advancing towards us was maybe three times that. We had been fighting smaller numbers of Chinese for two hours before that. But this was their main force. The all-out assault that the Chinese side was launching against us,” the book quotes Havildar Dharamvir Kumar Singh as saying.
Divulging details about the Chinese preparedness in carrying out the attack, Dharamvir says, “They carried carbon fibre shields which also had that bright flashing light. They would flash that in the dark, and the beam would blind you. That was what they did before the final charge,” says Havildar Dharamvir.
The first-hand accounts of the clashes also puncture Beijing’s claims of PLA casualties. The battlefield was strewn with dead Chinese soldiers, and throughout the night, the injured PLA soldiers were pulled out of the region and transported to PLA positions in the rear, the book says.
“Since the time we had assembled in the area in the morning (June 16), we had spotted dead bodies of several Chinese soldiers lying around. Our orders were not to touch them, as the Chinese were expected to retrieve them later,” the book quotes Havildar Dharamvir as saying.
One of the soldiers who played an instrumental role in thwarting the Chinese advance and who instilled an unmatched sense of confidence and energy among their fellow Indian troopers was Naib Subedar Nuduram Soren, also posthumously awarded Vir Chakra for displaying transcendent bravery in the face of unprovoked Chinese aggression. Those who fought alongside him still remember his determined screams as he charged against the enemy soldiers.
“There was no stopping him. Naib Subedar Soren fought bravely against the Chinese despite suffering serious injuries. He said PLA had to be pushed back at any cost. Soren Saab motivated us so much that we thrashed the Chinese soldiers with even greater zeal,” the book quotes a soldier from 16 Bihar who fought alongside him in the Galwan Valley clashes.
In the aftermath of the clashes, the Indian Army search party also found a primitive catapult system installed by the Chinese, a few feet up from the mountainside from where Soren’s body was recovered, to launch rocks at the Indian Army, the authors write.
Naik Deepak, Naib Subedar Soren, Havildar K Palani and Sepoy Gurtej Singh were posthumously honoured with Vir Chakra on 26 January 2021.
