Indian and Chinese forces battle with sticks and bricks

• A deadly confrontation between Indian and Chinese forces was filmed.
• The film shows the two Asian countries’ long-simmering territorial conflicts.
• Who shot or spread the footage on Indian social media is unknown.

A previously unreported violent battle between Indian and Chinese forces along their disputed Himalayan border appears to have been captured on video, providing a rare glimpse into the long-simmering territorial tensions between the two Asian countries.

According to a serving Indian military officer with knowledge of the border skirmishes between China and India, the video was shot on September 28, 2021, along the Line of Actual Control, the de facto frontier between the two nations, in the mountainous Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been contacted by Media for a response regarding the video.

Unknown as to who shot or distributed the video, it started going viral on Indian social media on Tuesday, barely hours after the Indian Defense Ministry acknowledged that a fight had broken out at the border on Friday in the isolated Tawang region of northeastern India. The first instance to be reported in almost two years.

In the footage, which Media cannot independently verify, soldiers from both nations can be seen in a mountainous area surrounded by verdant hills that don’t appear to have experienced winter.

Despite being separated by barbed wire, it looks that Indian troops are assaulting Chinese soldiers in the video with crude instruments like what appear to be wooden sticks and metal pipes.

Indian soldiers have been observed throwing bricks and stones in multiple cases.

On the other side of the line, a large portion of the Chinese soldiers are congregated, and they too look to be carrying long sticks or batons.

The Indian side cheers as the barbed wire eventually gives way and the Indian soldiers advance, forcing the Chinese forces to jump over a short stone wall and flee the area.

According to the Indian military source, infractions occur often because of how each side views the border and how often they monitor the LAC.

Given the absence of snow in the footage, many experts who spoke with Media concurred that it did not show a recent altercation. The film does, however, give viewers a glimpse into the ongoing hostilities, about which officials generally place very severe restrictions.

“It’s an illustration of how quickly things can go south if tensions are not reduced between the two sides,” said Sushant Singh, senior fellow at the Center for Policy Research, an Indian think tank.

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