The ignominy.

23 Oct 1975

Location : Tulung La on the LAC in West Kameng of Arunachal Pradesh.

Event : On 20 Oct '75, the PLA crossed over the LAC at Tulung La and shot 4 men of 5 Assam Rifles. They had perhaps captured two of them alive and tortured them to death. They had established a post on the LAC, post the incident.

Col BR Shah, CO 3/1 GR located at Sela, with a group of 19 men, was tasked to get back the dead bodies of our soldiers. The decision to release the dead bodies was arrived at after a third country prevailed on China, most probably the USSR and the government of India agreed to the terms of release.

What was humiliating about the task assigned to the CO was that they were to go unarmed to the PLA post, where the enemy was fully armed. The party had to carry a blue flag 6 ft x 4 ft and under no circumstances were they to enter into any argument with the PLA. Col Shah later describes the state of the dead bodies which bore several torture marks. He had to return with the mortal remains without uttering a word. Worse still was the fact that the Tulung La incident and the torture of our men were never raised with China in a worthwhile manner. No Galwan type meetings ensued.

Even by 1975, the humiliation of 1962 had not worn off from the government in power and consequently, the army. It was evident in the manner in which the terms and conditions of releasing the dead bodies were agreed to.

Much water has flown under the bridges in Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh.

On 15 Jun 2020, in one eventful and bloody night, Col Santosh Babu and his brave men made the supreme sacrifice and washed off the humiliation of 1962 and 1975. 15 Jun and thereafter, China and PLA have started seeing a new Indian resolve and its unrelenting army. India's firm stand can be seen in all the military level talks too after 15 Jun.

PS. But for two photographs clicked by Col BR Shah's party, no official pictures exist of the event. That's the level of secrecy (fear) which ensued after the humiliating incident of 1975.

- Satish Padmanabh. 

Got up at a half past 6, the chores and was ready by a half past 9. It was a quiet Sunday except for the fact that Suma had turned up for work and so, we didn't feel like it was a holiday! Spoke to Mini and Ammu around 12. My Master Chief saab Sajith Kumar, at the MCO, Kochi had called up and it was nice to catch up with him. He has said that he'd come by after the Corona phase subsides. 

Watched a good Malayalam movie, "Maniyarayile Asokan" in the evening. It has been produced by Dulquer Salman (Mammootty's son) and he plays a cameo in it as a naval commander!