BLOODBATH RIDGE
On Monday, June 15, it seemed like the stand-off with the Chinese PLA (People’s Liberation Army) in eastern Ladakh was drawing to a close. Nine days earlier, commanders from both sides had held a first-ever meet at the Moldo border post opposite Chushul in Ladakh, and the Chinese, according to the Indian army, had agreed to pull back in the Galwan Valley. That evening, a group of soldiers from the 16 Bihar Regiment camped in the valley went to verify whether the PLA had indeed withdrawn from Patrol Point 14, a spot on a ridge above the valley which the latter had occupied since early May. This was the point in the valley on India’s side of the LAC to where border patrols usually walked up to and returned.
Like all the ridge positions in the valley heights at between 14,000-16,000 feet, one army officer says, this one too can be accessed only by a narrow foot trail barely wide enough for two people
