India’s NDTV reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources, that the nation’s Air Force had scrambled jets multiple times in the past month in response to “enhanced Chinese air activity” on their mutual border, news whose urgency is exacerbated by a brawl prompted by an invading Chinese military force.
The defense ministries of both countries confirmed on Monday that an altercation between Indian and Chinese troops had occurred on Friday in Arunachal Pradesh, a far-east region of India in the Himalayas that borders occupied Tibet. The Indian government accused hundreds of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers of crossing the border illegally into India, forcing the Indian soldiers to respond with violence until the Chinese troops were removed.
Radio Free Asia (RFA) published a video on Tuesday purporting to be of the melee on the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the Chinese-Indian border, showing hundreds of people armed with what appear to be sticks attempting to beat each other.
The Chinese Communist Party confirmed that the incident occurred, but claimed the Indian soldiers had illegally crossed into China and thus prompted the brawl. The Indian government claimed soldiers sustained only minor injuries and no deaths were recorded, a claim China did not contest.
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