India, China in top level talks after deadly border brawl

INDIA and China held top level talks Wednesday (17) to "cool down the situation", Beijing said, after a violent border brawl that left at least 20 Indian soldiers dead.

The two nations' foreign ministers spoke by telephone to calm escalating tensions after high-altitude fisticuffs involving rocks and clubs.

News of the call between China's Wang Yi and India's Subrahmanyam Jaishankar -- which was not confirmed by New Delhi -- came as sources said that Indian paramilitaries were being deployed to the area of the skirmish high in the Himalayas opposite Tibet.

Meanwhile, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi said that the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers in clashes with Chinese troops on the Asian giants' border "will not be in vain."

"I would like to assure the country that the sacrifice of our soldiers will not be in vain. For us, the unity and integrity of the country is the most important... India wants peace but is capable of giving a reply if provoked," Modi said in a televised address.

China has refused to confirm if it suffered any casualties in the first deadly clashes at the border in decades, although Indian media said at least 40 Chinese troops were killed or seriously hurt.

The Chinese foreign ministry statement said Wang demanded "India conduct a thorough investigation" and punish those responsible.

"The Indian side must not misjudge the current situation, and must not underestimate China's firm will to safeguard its territorial sovereignty," it added.

The incident, which took place Monday at around 4,500 metres (15,000 feet) in the Galwan valley area dominated India's tub-thumping rolling news channels on Wednesday, and inflamed social media.

In several places small groups of protesters called for the boycott of Chinese goods with one burning posters of Chinese president Xi Jinping.

Sources told AFP that military transport aircraft had made a number of rare night-time landings in Leh, capital of India's Ladakh region opposite China's Tibet throughout Tuesday (16) night.

'Hurtling down'

The clashes reportedly involved intense hand-to-hand fighting but no gunfire, in line with longstanding practices aimed at avoiding a full military confrontation over the disputed 3,500-kilometre (2,200-mile) border.

An Indian army source told AFP there were "violent hand-to-hand scuffles", while media said that Chinese troops attacked with rods and nail-studded clubs.

Many of these killed appear to have been punched or shoved off a ridge onto rocks and into an icy river below.

"They came hurtling down like free-falling objects," one source said.

Postmortem examinations on those killed showed that the "primary reason for death is drowning and it looks like they fell from a height into the water because of head injuries," an official said.

Sources said Wednesday that six Indian soldiers were still missing. Both sides gave competing versions of the violence.

Beijing said Indian troops "crossed the border line twice... provoking and attacking Chinese personnel," while an Indian foreign ministry spokesman said the clash arose from "an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo" on the border.

Calls for restraint

The US -- which has mounting frictions with China, but sees India as an emerging ally -- said it was hoping for a "peaceful resolution".

The UN called for both sides to "exercise maximum restraint", while Russia welcomed news of subsequent peaceful contacts between the two neighbours.

India and China have never even agreed on the length of their "Line of Actual Control" frontier.

They fought a brief war in 1962 and deadly clashes followed in 1967, but the last shot fired in anger was in 1975 when four Indians died.

In 2017 there was a 72-day showdown after Chinese forces moved into the disputed Doklam plateau on the China-India-Bhutan border.

The recent uptick in tensions began in early May, when several Indian and Chinese soldiers were injured in a clash involving fists and stone-throwing.

Their prickly relationship was strained when India in August revoked the semi-autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir state and split off Ladakh into a new administrative territory.

Ladakh is partly claimed by Beijing. India meanwhile has been irked by China's backing of Pakistan and an economic corridor going through parts of Kashmir controlled by Islamabad but claimed by India.