Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday described the killing of 20 soldiers by Chinese troops in Galwan Valley in Ladakh as “horrendous and barbaric”, and demanded accountability for the loss of precious lives in the violent clash.
“The whole nation was expecting a befitting response from the government to this horrific attack on its men. Our soldiers at the front should be clearly told that if they kill 1 of ours, you kill 3 of theirs,” said Captain Amarinder in a statement.
Questioning why no orders were given to fire at the Chinese troops in the attack, the Chief Minister said, “Somebody failed to do his job out there, and we need to find out who that was.”
“If the unit was armed, as is being claimed now, the second-in-command should have ordered firing the moment the commanding officer fell to the Chinese treachery,” he said, adding that “the nation wants to know why our men did not retaliate in the way they are trained to do.”
“What were they doing sitting out there while their colleagues were getting killed,” he asked.
‘Intelligence failure’
“I want to know, every soldier wants to know, and every Indian wants to know what happened,” said the Chief Minister, adding that he feels very strongly about the incident, which exposed a “gross intelligence failure”.
“Those boys sitting out there on the mountains deserve answers and expect a hard-hitting response,” he said. “What happened out there was not a joke, and the message has to go out strongly to China that India was no longer prepared to take their deceit.”
