China aggression on border

New Delhi: Chinese troops carried rods, spears, clubs and pole weapons called 'Guandao' in aggressively trying to close in on an Indian position in Mukhpari area of Rezang-La ridgeline in eastern Ladakh on Monday evening, government sources said on Tuesday.

As tension escalated at the Line of Actual Control(LAC), the sources said around 50-60 soldiers of Chinese People's Liberation Army(PLA) approached the Indian post in the southern bank of Pangon lake area at around 6 PM but the Indian Army personnel posted there strongly confronted them, forcing their retreat. It may be recalled that the Chinese troops had mounted a savage attack on Indian soldiers with stones, nail-studded sticks, iron rods and clubs during the Galwan Valley clashes in eastern Ladakh on June 15 in which 20 Indian Army personnel were killed.

The government sources said the Chinese army may have planned to engage Indian troops on Monday evening in a way similar to the clashes in Galwan Valley as its soldiers were carrying rods, spears, clubs and 'Guandao'. Guandao is a type of Chinese pole weapon that is used in some forms of Chinese martial arts. It has a blade mounted atop a long wooden pole.

Beijing claimed that the "successful flight marked the country's important breakthrough in reusable spacecraft research and is expected to offer convenient and low-cost round trip transport for the peaceful use of the space". An astronomer at Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Jonathan McDowell, using his Twitter handle speculated that the landing site may have been Taklamakan desert in northwest China.