Recently, the EurAsian Times quoting the AFP, reported the death of an Indian soldier of Tibetan origin who was killed at Pangong Tso – the clash site of Indian and Chinese soldiers. The news was widely reported without any official confirmation from the Indian side.
SAAB To Make Its Gripen Jets Stealth With Advanced Jammer Pods & Decoy Missiles
Later, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman, Hua Chunying issued a statement on Wednesday (September 02) that no member of India’s armed forces died on the mountainous border with China.
Asked about the intrusion into Pangong Tso banks on the southern side, Hua Chunying said, “You just said that the Indian side pre-empted China’s action. In China, we have a saying about a guilty mind protesting conspicuously he’s innocent.
That’s what India did. It shows that the Indian troops illegally crossed the line in provocation and unilaterally changed the status quo and broke the two sides’ agreement and consensus.”
Eventually, local media reports and Tibet Sun confirmed that a Indian soldier of Tibetan origin – Nyima Tenzin, who was a Company Leader in the Special Frontier Force (SFF) under the Indian Army, died as the result of a land mine blast on the night of 29 August.
According to reports, Tenzin died while he and his colleagues were patrolling on the eastern side of the Pangong lake in Ladakh. A junior soldier Tenzin Loden, 24, was critically injured in the same explosion and is being treated at the military hospital in Ladakh.
SSF celeberation along China occupied Tibet border with Ladakh, India . Khampa warrior,and their music . pic.twitter.com/zjdL3AzYma
— sorig ladakhspa (ソナム・リグゼン・ラダクパ) (@sorigzinam) September 1, 2020
On Tuesday, an army convoy brought the body of Nyima Tenzin in a coffin draped with the Indian flag, and later adorned with a Tibetan flag, to his home in the Tibetan settlement of Choglamsar, close to Ladakh’s capital Leh.
According to Tibet Sun, Nyima Tenzin had 33 years’ service in SFF. He left behind his wife and three children. The cremation ceremony will take place on the morning of 7 September.
According to reports, the SFF soldiers launched a counterattack to defend the Chinese intrusion and captured the Black Top Hill that had been occupied by the Chinese PLA troops. More than 30 soldiers of China’s Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) are beleived to have been injured in the clash.
Earlier, Namgyal Dolkar Lhagyari, a member of the Tibetan parliament in exile told AFP that the Tibetan-origin soldier was “martyred during the clash” on the night of Saturday. However, there has been no comment from any officials belonging to the Indian government or the military.
The Indian Army maintains deafening silence regarding the Special Frontier Force, which is a covert specially-trained paramilitary unit based in Chakrata, near Dehradun, in Uttrakhand, northern India. It was established after the Indo-China war in 1962.
