According to a government minister, China lost as many as 40 army personnel in the aggressive clash with India that happened along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), Reuters reported.

China, however, has not revealed the number of casualties that happened during the violent stand-off with India in Galwan Valley in the western Himalayas, in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed and at least 76 injured.

“If 20 were martyred on our (Indian) side, then there would have been at least doubling the casualties on their (China) side,” V.K.Singh, the minister for roads and transport, told TV News24 in an interview broadcast late on Saturday, as cited in the Reuters report.

Singh, who is a former army chief, did not provide any proof to corroborate his statements. He said China historically never accepted any war casualties including in the 1962 conflict with India.

China’s state-controlled Global Times said earlier there had been casualties on the Chinese side but did not elaborate on the figures.

Singh said the Indian side had handed over Chinese troops who had strayed into Indian territory after the violent stand-off.

However, when Reuters approached India’s defence ministry spokesman Bharat Bhushan Babu for the comment, he refused to say anything on Singh’s interview.

The nuclear-armed Asian neighbours blamed each other for claiming the disputed territory that had led to the violent confrontations between the two nations.

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