New Delhi: A 37-second clip, purportedly showing a brawl involving Indian and Chinese soldiers, is being widely circulated on social media, with BJP’s Mumbai Minority Morcha president Wasim R Khan also sharing the video.
The BJP leader didn’t specify if the visuals were from the border clash that took place on 9 December in Arunachal’s Tawang area. However, the timing as well as the content of the tweet implied that the reference was to the clash along with the northeastern border. In the post, Khan wrote: “Here’s a picture of Chinese soldiers being beaten up.”
The tweet has received almost 34,000 views and retweeted over 1,000 times till Wednesday morning.
चीनी सैनिकों की धूलाई वाली तस्वीर। pic.twitter.com/MLQSGtG5mT
— Wasim R Khan (@wasimkhan0730) December 13, 2022
Several unverified accounts also shared the video claiming it depicts events from Tawang.
#BREAKING : More than 300 Chinese soldiers and aproxx 150 Indian soldiers were part of Tawang clashes. Approx 100 Chinese soldiers injured, 12 captured by IA ( later released) while number of injured IA Soldiers are less than 20.#ArunachalPradesh #LAC (Sources) (File Video) pic.twitter.com/lC2oEWoqMs
— Baba Banaras™ (@RealBababanaras) December 12, 2022
India-China border clash on December 9
More than 300 Chinese soldiers and about 150 Indian soldiers broke out in a large-scale brawl in Tawang.About 100 Chinese soldiers were wounded,12 of them captured and later released by the Indian army while less than 20 Indian soldiers were pic.twitter.com/9UW2FEN6fb— Nguyen Ken (@NguyenK68421403) December 13, 2022
The ‘No Gun’ treaty with China should be thrown in the dustbin, because it puts India at a disadvantage .
Salute to Indian Soldiers fighting with their hands at #Tawang .
Government of India needs to wake up .#TawangClash pic.twitter.com/XCSpTCi0FJ— Ritesh Mahajan 🇮🇳 (@rmahajan25) December 12, 2022
What happened in Tawang
On Monday, the Indian army said there had been a clash along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh last Friday, 9 December.
Over 200 Chinese troops armed with spiked clubs with nails on them, monkey fists and taser guns clashed with Indian soldiers in the tense Yangtse area of Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang sector, leading to several injuries on both sides, ThePrint had learnt.
A day later, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh addressed lawmakers in Parliament, saying the encounter started when Chinese troops “encroached into Indian territory” and “unilaterally tried to change the status quo” along the disputed border near the Yangtse area.
Fact check:
Although the high-altitude skirmish had taken place in Sikkim, the clip dates back from two years ago. The video of the clash had emerged days after the deadly face-off at Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on 15 June, 2020.
In the video, a Chinese officer is punched by an Indian jawan as soldiers of both sides brawl that lasts over five minutes. NDTV had uploaded the video on their YouTube channel on 23 June 2020. Crux, a daily video news site had also uploaded the video on their YouTube channel on 23 June 2020 on the same day, citing that they had no clear information on when the video was shot.
(In collaboration with SM Hoaxslayer)