![]() They declared that in certain portions along the LAC in the Tawang Sector there existed “areas of differing perception, which both sides had patrolled up to their respective claim lines since 2006.” “However, on December 9 PLA troops ‘contacted’ ( sic) the LAC in this sector, which was contested by IA troops in a firm and resolute manner”, the statement said, and the ensuing “face-off led to minor injuries to (a) few personnel from the two armies.” MoD sources issue statement, defence minister speaks Accordingly, at around 8 pm on Monday, MoD sources put out a brief statement. The Indian Army was asked to give defence correspondents a bare bones account of what had happened. ![]() ![]() The Tribune‘s Ajay Banerjee broke the story around 6 pm, after which the government appears to have decided an official account needed to be issued. Just as the policeman’s claim started going viral, he deleted his tweet but not before reporters and politicians began wondering whether indeed something serious had happened near the border. The Wire understands that the soldiers involved in the Friday morning clash did not have network access for more than two days and it is possible one of the injured jawans managed to get word out only on Sunday or Monday. The policeman went on to castigate the media for ignoring such a major event, in which he claimed someone close to him too had been injured in the melee in Tawang. Screenshot of a Decemtweet, now deleted, claiming a clash had occurred near Tawang. The former claim, however, has since been officially denied. He tagged, amongst others, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, and said that a clash had taken place between Indian and Chinese soldiers, following which there were reports of several soldiers having been killed and injured. Though reporters from at least one national daily had contacted the defence ministry on Sunday itself about the clash only to be issued a flat denial, the first public news of this fracas was tweeted by a trainee police officer in Uttar Pradesh from Jhansi at 1.19 pm on December 12. Speculation over the motivation for the three-day official silence ranges from government media managers not wanting news of such serious security and headline-grabbing dimensions ‘eclipsing’ the spectacular victory the Bharatiya Janata Party had just registered in the Gujarat state elections, to the government’s traditional tendency to remain mum on border incursions by the Chinese for fear of either appearing weak or being forced by public opinion into reacting more stridently than it might want to. Military and security analysts say that news of the December 9 early morning clash at Yangtze – 35km northeast of Tawang adjoining the disputed Line of Actual Control (LAC) – in which at least six Indian Army (IA) soldiers were seriously injured was ‘deliberately withheld’ and only released when an account of the clash appeared on social media via the acquaintance or relative of an injured jawan, and followed soon thereafter by a story in The Tribune. New Delhi: Reports of last week’s clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers in Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh have left several questions unanswered, from the timing of the official revelation – more than three days after the incident – to the number of military personnel from India and China who reportedly sustained injuries, to the biggest imponderable of them all: Beijing’s motivation in upping the ante.
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