Indian army convoy moving along Srinagar-Leh National Highway, Baltal.
The Indian army said on Tuesday that 20 of its soldiers were killed in clashes with Chinese troops at a disputed border site, in a major escalation of a weeks-long standoff in the western Himalayas, according to the Indian army and government sources.
In a statement, the army said that 17 critically injured Indian troops succumbed to their wounds, in addition to an officer and two soldiers who had died earlier.
The incident happened on Monday and the exact circumstances of the killing is not yet clear.
Earlier on Tuesday sources suggested a physical altercation had broken out and no shots were fired. At the time the sources said the fight involved batons and throwing rocks.
It's the first casualties in 53 years to result from a clash between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
Indian Army Soldiers at a makeshift transit camp before heading to Ladakh, near Baltal.
China blamed India for the clash on Monday and the editor of the government-controlled Global Times said the Chinese military had also suffered casualties, without elaborating.
India and China have been locked in a standoff in the Galwan valley in western Himalayas for weeks with both accusing each other of trespassing into the other's territory.
The deaths were the first since the last major border clash in 1967 between the nuclear-armed Asian giants and the world's two most populous countries which have not been able to settle the dispute along their vast frontier.
Since early May, hundreds of soldiers have fronted up against each other at three locations, each side accusing the other of trespassing.
On Monday night, a small group of soldiers came to blows in the Galwan Valley, Indian officials said.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing said there was a serious violation of a consensus reached by the two countries.
India and China fought a brief but bloody border war in 1962 and distrust has occasionally led to flare-ups ever since.
Border guards have had skirmishes and fist fights when patrols have confronted each other, but there has been no loss of life at the border since 1967.
Talks have been held in recent days to diffuse the situation but no breakthrough has emerged.
The Chinese foreign ministry called on India not to take any unilateral action or stir up trouble.
Indian Defence Expert, D.S. Dhillon, saying:
"We have reached a situation where we were standing eyeball to eyeball and this has resulted in the scuffle where we have lost our brave jawans. This is very sad and we want government to immediately step in and take some diplomatic actions so that it does not happen like '62 that small incidents get flared up to a bigger level and we may have to go for a bigger action then."
(c)Reuters
(c)ANI
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