Did PLA Use Iron Rods Studded With Nails In Galwan Valley Clash?

The face-off between Indian and Chinese soldiers on Monday and left 20 Indian military personnel martyred while media reports put the casualty figures on the Chinese side at over 40. The face-off between Indian and Chinese soldiers on Monday night left 20 Indian military personnel martyred, while media reports put the casualty figures on the Chinese side at over 40. However, what has emerged is that even while the process of disengagement was on, the Chinese side appears to have come to the site of the face-off in the Galwan Valley with a plan to attack the Indian soldiers.

Military experts have pointed out that as per established protocol, agreements of earlier times and standard procedure, the soldiers did not use arms, though they were equipped. Pictures of iron rods studded with nails, wrapped in barbed wire said to have been used as deadly weapons at the time of the violent clash went viral on social media platforms. However, while the violent clash between PLA soldiers and Indian troops did take place, army headquarters is reported to have described the image of iron rods with nails doing the rounds, as fake.

Defence analysts have pointed out that China has been building roads and bridges in the area for a very long time, but objected to the road being built by India in the region on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC). After weeks of simmering tension on the border, a series of talks between military officials at the highest level and also at the level of commanding officers of the two sides, it was agreed to begin a process of disengagement.

The Chinese however, it appears had other plans because it was during the course of the disengagement process that the violent attack on the Commanding Officer on the Indian side, Col. B. Santosh Babu, who is said to have asked the Chinese troops to remove their tents pitched on the Indian side of the area, as had been agreed upon earlier, took place.