PM Modi calls all-party meet on June 19 over Ladakh clashes, army deaths

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday called for an all-party meeting at 5 pm on Friday, June 19 to discuss the situation along the India-China border. Presidents of various political parties are expected to take part in the virtual meeting.
The Indian Army Tuesday confirmed the death of 20 soldiers in violent clashes with Chinese troops in Ladakh’s Galwan area, along the Line Of Actual Control (LAC). The incident, which took place Monday night, was the worst flare-up along the border in more than five decades.
Officers,according to the reports , have said that the clashes were triggered by an argument over the position of Chinese soldiers who were erecting a new post on the southern bank of Galwan river in a ‘buffer zone’ – a no-man’s land.
In the fight, some soldiers either fell or were pushed into the river, officers said. Some bodies were recovered from the river while others had signs of being brutalised. A few soldiers died of hypothermia. While the Army said there were casualties on both sides, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) did not comment on its losses.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Wednesday said the loss of soldiers in Galwan was “deeply disturbing and painful”. This was his first statement on the incident. The last deaths at the LAC were in 1975 when an Indian patrol was ambushed by Chinese soldiers in Arunachal Pradesh. A violent clash between the two sides on the border had taken place at Nathu La in 1967.