Senior military officials from India and China met on Tuesday in an attempt to ease rising tensions between the two countries after their armed forces had a violent face-off in the Galwan Valley along the disputed border, on Monday night.

“During the de-escalation process underway in the Galwan Valley, a violent face-off took place yesterday night with casualties on both sides. The loss of lives on the Indian side includes an officer and two soldiers. Senior military officials of the two sides are currently meeting at the venue to defuse the situation,” an Indian Army statement said on Tuesday.

China lodged a protest against India following the violence asking it not to cross the border. “Here, we are sternly demanding India to earnestly abide by the relevant agreement and strictly restrain their frontline troops. They should not cross the borderlines,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said in a statement.

Opposition parties expressed outrage over the killing of the Indian Army officer and two soldiers by the Chinese and accused the Centre of being a “mute spectator” to the Chinese aggression.

It pressed the Centre to hold high-level talks to defuse the situation. The Congress said the ruling BJP silently watched while transgressions took place in the Galwan River Valley, Hot Springs and Pangong Tso Lake Area in Ladakh.

“In last five decades, not a single casualty or martyrdom of our soldiers has occurred on Indo-China Border i.e. ‘Line of Actual Control’....Will the PM and Raksha Mantri take the nation into confidence as to how our officer and soldiers could be killed as the Chinese were reportedly withdrawing from our territory in the Galwan Valley?” Congress’s media in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala said in a statement.

Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh reviewed the situation at a meeting in New Delhi attended by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and the three service chiefs.

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