India-China border tension | What happened in 1975, the last time Chinese troopers killed Indian soldiers?

File image: Indian Army soldiers guarding the border

One Indian Army officer and two soldiers were martyred in a “violent face-off” that unfolded in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley late on June 15.

The incident took place along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh after a standoff between the Indian and Chinese troops. The confrontation between the rival patrols started on May 6 near Ladakh’s serene Pangong Lake after deep Chinese incursion was reported in the area.

Undoubtedly, the situation in Ladakh right now is far more serious and intense than past skirmishes. However, this is not the first time a skirmish between the two neighbouring countries ended in bloodshed. Four decades before the Galwan face-off, a similar incident had taken place in the eastern sector of the LAC, where four Indian Army soldiers were killed by Chinese troopers.

So, what had happened along the LAC in 1975?

Although the 1967 clash or what is often referred to as the Second Sino-Indian War, is recounted as the last time shots were fired on the India-China border, the death of four soldiers of an Assam Rifles patrol party on October 20, 1975, is often forgotten. The incident took place when Sikkim joined India, a move that the Chinese saw as an Indian annexation.

The four soldiers died in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tulung La Pass after PLA soldiers crossed over into Indian territory and ambushed a patrol party. Although China claimed that the soldiers had shot at the Indian Army men in self-defence, India has maintained that they had intruded into Indian territory.