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Despite India and China having 16 rounds of consultations achieving some de-escalation, several issues still remain unaddressed. With the onset of winter, Indian armed forces had started fortifying its infrastructure along the border. The Army chief stated that India's actions on LAC are being carefully calibrated to be able to safeguard our interests and sensitivities

Several Indian Army soldiers were injured in a clash with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) at Yangtse, Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh on December 9, multiple sources said.

Confirming that the incident has occurred, a defence official with knowledge of the matter, without giving the specifics, said that the injuries on the “Chinese side were much higher than on the Indian side.”

This is the first incident of its kind after the June 15, 2020 incident when 20 Indian soldiers were killed and several others were injured in violent clashes with the PLA troops in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley.

The clashes come just month after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met at the G20 summit in Bali, a first since Galwan incident.

More than 300 Chinese soldiers had attempted to get access to the top of 17,000-ft peak and were thwarted by Indian Army jawans, sources said. The area is now under snow. The Chinese troops wanted to uproot an Indian post, but the attempt was successfully thwarted by the Indian side.

Both sides immediately disengaged from the area.

Several senior officials while confirming that the incident took place declined to comment on the specifics of the incident. There was no response from the Army to questions sent till the time of going to print.

According to another source, few soldiers sustained fractured limbs during the skirmish and are said to be recuperating at a hospital in Guwahati. Around 600 PLA soldiers were present when the clashes took place, the source said.

This is not the first time the area in Arunachal Pradesh has seen a face-off between the Indian and Chinese troops. Since the boundary is undefined, Indian and Chinese troops often face-off while patrolling the area. In October 2021, a similar incident had taken place when some Chinese soldiers of a large patrol team were detained for few hours by the Indian Army they engaged in a minor face-off and clashed near Yangtse.