New Delhi

Eight months after the clashes at Galwan Valley led to tensions between India and China, the Chinese Army has broken its silence on casualties and admitted that four of its men had died in the conflict.

According to Global Times, the Communist party mouthpiece, these five soldiers have been conferred with gallantry awards recently. One of them is the regimental commander of the PLA holding the rank of a Colonel.

The Central Military Commission awarded Qi Fabao, the regimental commander from the PLA Xinjiang Military Command, the title of "Heroic regimental commander for defending the border," Chen Hongjun with "Hero to defend the border," and awarded the first-class merit to Chen Xiangrong, Xiao Siyuan, and Wang Zhuoran, the report said.

Giving its own version of the incident, the report claims India deployed a large force to intrude into ‘Chinese territory’ and that the “Chinese soldiers defended the sovereignty of the country amid attacks of steel tubes, cudgels, and stones.

India had lost 20 soldiers in the skirmish and the incident sparked anti-China sentiments in the country. Indian martyrs were laid to rest with full military honours and people paying tribute to them. As against this the Chinese Military laid its fallen soldiers to rest in total anonymity.

This was the worst border conflict between the two countries in nearly 45 years.  The report originally in People Daily chose not to mention India and referred to it as "foreign military."

Chinese have admitted to these deaths after American and even Russian agencies had pegged its casualties in the Galwan at 45. India has claimed at least 40 Chinese were killed in the counterattack.

Currently, China and India have started the disengagement of troops from the southern and northern banks of the Pangong Tso (Lake) and relevant work has been ongoing. The China-India border areas are expected to return to previous peace and stability. 

Meanwhile, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday informed the Rajya Sabha that in a major development, India and China had reached an agreement to disengage their troops from the northern and southern banks of the contentious Pangong lake where the Chinese troops would move back.