In the first loss of lives on the disputed India-China border in at least 45 years, the Army has lost one officer and 19 soldiers in a violent faceoff in the Galwan Valley last night.

An official statement released by the Indian Army late on Tuesday night said the “Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area where they had earlier clashed on the night of 15/16 June 2020”. It added that “17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the standoff location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries”. This take the total number of those killed in action to 20. “Indian Army is firmly committed to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation,” the statement added.

“The loss of lives on the Indian side includes an officer and two soldiers,” an earlier statement had said. That statement also said that “senior military officials of the two sides are currently meeting at the venue to defuse the situation”.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Tuesday reviewed the current operational situation in Eastern Ladakh, following Monday’s violent faceoff on the LAC, along with the Chief of Defence Staff and the three service Chiefs. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was also present during the meeting.

Tensions between the two armies have been running high on the border since reports of a scuffle between the soldiers of both sides at Pangong Tso (eastern Ladakh) and Naku la (in Sikkim) came in early last month. Both the armies have since mobilized and deployed a large number of soldiers and heavy military equipment along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).The last deaths on the India-China border were in 1975 when an Indian patrol was ambushed by the Chinese soldiers on the LAC in Arunachal Pradesh. A violent clash between the two sides on the border had taken place at Nathu La in 1967.