Tulung La, 1975: A Blue Flag, Gun-Wielding Chinese & Torture Of 4 Indian Soldiers

NEW DELHI: In the long history of India-China boundary dispute, a few incidents remain a landmark. The 1962 war is the biggest of them all; the 1967 clash at Nathu La in Sikkim is another. But another episode of a bloody encounter between Indian and Chinese soldiers that happened in Arunachal Pradesh in 1975 is not so well known. It is recorded in public domain as the last time before 2020 when shots were fired on the disputed border. Four soldiers of the para-military force Assam Rifles were killed. There is no information on how many Chinese–if at all–were killed in that clash. For the first time, we bring you the real story of what happened on 20 October 1975 at a remote mountain pass called Tulung La. Col Baliram Shah (Retd), then Commanding the 3/1 Gorkha Rifles unit at Sela was given the job of retrieving the bodies of the four soldiers. He narrates the incident in detail to Nitin A. Gokhale, Editor-in-Chief of Stratnews Global