PM calls all-party meet on June 19 over India-China issue

New Delhi, June 17 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for an all-party meeting on June 19 over India-China border issue following the violent face-off with the Chinese troops on Monday night in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh on the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in a tweet on Wednesday said that the meeting will be held at 5 p.m. on June 19 in which issues related to the face-off between the Indian forces and Chinese People’s Liberation Army soldiers at patrolling point number 14 in eastern Ladakh will be discussed.

The presidents of various parties will take part in the meeting. “In order to discuss the situation in the India-China border areas, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for an all-party meeting at 5 p.m. on 19th June. Presidents of various political parties would take part in this virtual meeting,” the PMO tweeted.

Meanwhile, government sources said, several Indian Army soldiers are “critically injured” and are undergoing treatment and that “casualties could increase” in the one of the deadliest attack carried out by the Chinese Army at the LAC. Government sources said that the number of critically injured personnel is in double digit, Indian Army refused to comment on the numbers and stated that several were injured.

The attack on Indian Army personnel by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army happened on Monday night and continued for almost six to seven hours.

On Tuesday, Indian helicopters flew around 16 times to bring bodies and injured Indian Army personnel from the site of the attack in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh region, government sources said.

Four bodies of the Indian Army personnel were flown to Leh from the Galwan Valley on Wednesday morning. On Tuesday, the Indian Army stated that 20 of their men, including officers, were killed in an unprecedented violent clash with the PLA troops in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh region on Monday night. The force also said that the death toll would increase as many soldiers were brutally injured.

The Indian Army issued a statement on Tuesday night wherein it said, “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, taking the total that were killed in action to 20.”

–IANS

rak/dpb