Gen Naravane memoir: Recalling months of LAC tensions, clashes, deaths before the night of Aug 31, 2020

Following multiple rounds of diplomatic and military-level talks between the two sides, both sides formally agreed to disengage from all remaining friction points along the LAC, including the legacy areas of Depsang Plains and Demchok, in October 2024.

The Indian Express explains the sequence of events in that period.

What happened before August 31?

Towards the end of April 2020, tensions between India and China began mounting following the rapid mobilisation of Chinese troops and infrastructure development along the LAC. This looked like a structured move aimed at altering the status quo on the border through ingress at multiple points.

In response, India deployed a strong contingent of troops, along with equipment, in the area.

The tensions soon escalated into violence when, in the first week of May, Indian and Chinese troops clashed at two points along the LAC — one was the Naku La sector in Sikkim, and the other was a contested area near the Pangong Tso lake in Ladakh.

Several soldiers from both sides are said to have sustained injuries in the clashes, including two Indian Army officers (in the Ladakh clash). According to some estimates, more than 70 Indian soldiers were injured in the Ladakh clash.

The face-offs were resolved following talks at the local level between the two sides, even as the situation remained tense. A smaller face-off, also known to have taken place a few weeks ago in April, was resolved amicably. The last such major clash on the LAC in Ladakh had taken place in September 2019 on the north bank of the Pangong Tso.

The first military Corps Commander-level talks took place on June 6, 2020, following weeks of tensions along the LAC and continued troop and equipment buildups by both sides in eastern Ladakh. There were other meetings held at the level of various other military commanders from June 10 onwards to discuss and finalise the modalities of the disengagement process.

The Galwan Valley clashes

Following the talks, there were expectations of early disengagement and deescalation, with both India and China offering conciliatory statements.

The Corps Commander-level talks had led to an agreement to create a buffer zone between the LAC and the junction of the Shyok and Galwan rivers to prevent any faceoff. It is learnt that Colonel B Santosh Babu, the Commanding Officer who was monitoring this process, noticed that a Chinese camp was still present in the area and went to get it removed.

This was the immediate precursor to the June 15 clash with Chinese soldiers at Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh in which 20 Indian soldiers, including the CO, were killed. Neither the Chinese government nor the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have provided details of Chinese soldiers killed or injured in the clash, though some estimates put it at over 40.

Chinese soldiers allegedly used crude weapons such as improvised clubs wrapped in barbed wire, sticks, rods and stones. A few deaths were reportedly caused by Indian soldiers falling into the Galwan river. In many cases, the injuries were aggravated by the extreme cold in the high-altitude area.

Following the Galwan clash, a meeting at the level of Major Generals of both armies took place at PP14 in the area. The second round of Corps Commander-level talks also took place between the two sides a week after the clash.

Tensions continued to remain high all along the LAC in the subsequent weeks, with both sides moving thousands of additional troops and equipment to the Ladakh region.

What happened around August 31, 2020?

On the night of August 29-30, India took control of dominant positions on some key heights along the LAC at Rechin La, near Rezang La, on the south bank of the Pangong Tso lake.

According to India, this was a preemptive move to strengthen its position after PLA troops carried out “provocative” military movements to allegedly change the status quo, violating the consensus arrived at during military and diplomatic engagements over the Galwan clash.

A day later, on August 31, even as the ground commanders of the two sides were in discussions to de-escalate the situation, Chinese troops again engaged in “provocative action”, according to the Ministry of External Affairs. “Due to the timely defensive action, the Indian side was able to prevent these attempts to unilaterally alter the status quo,” it had said.

General Naravane’s unpublished memoirs provide an in-depth account of the Chinese actions on August 31 and the Indian Army’s response to that.

General Naravane first received a call from Northern Command chief, Lt Gen Y K Joshi. “At 2015 hours on the evening of 31 August, Jo (Lt Gen Joshi) rang me up, quite worried. He reported that four tanks supported by infantry had slowly started moving up the track towards Rechin La … They had fired an illuminating round but this had had no effect. I had clear orders not to open fire, ’till cleared from the very top’,” he writes.

It is learnt that Indian troops immediately issued warnings. There were also exchanges on the hotline, following which Chinese troops did not move ahead.

Over the next several months, tensions continued along the LAC, with diplomatic-level talks and four rounds of Corps Commander-level talks taking place between August 2020 and January 2021.

Both sides reached the first breakthrough in talks in February 2021 and agreed to disengage from the northern and southern banks of Pangong Tso.

A 10th round of military talks took place in February after the completion of this process. Both sides continued maintaining thousands of troops along the LAC in eastern Ladakh.