Nail-studded rods used by Chinese

Columnist Ajai Shukla, also a contributor for Rediff.com, tweets this image said, "The nail-studded rods -- captured by Indian soldiers from the Galwan Valley encounter site --with which Chinese soldiers attacked an Indian Army patrol and killed 20 Indian soldiers. Such barbarism must be condemned. This is thuggery, not soldiering."

Parrying questions about the brutal attack carried out by its troops on the Indian soldiers with iron rods and spikes on June 15, China on Thursday also declined to respond to queries on reports of it building a dam on the Galwan river at the Sino-Indian border to obstruct its flow.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian in his media briefing skirted questions for a second consecutive day about the casualties suffered by the Chinese troops in their clash with the Indian soldiers at the Galwan Valley on Monday night.

Asked about allegations that Col Santosh Babu and other Indian soldiers were brutally attacked with iron rods and spikes by Chinese soldiers and whether the confrontation started when the Indian troops arrive to demolish structures set up by China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), Zhao reiterated China's allegation, squarely blaming the Indian troops for the incident.

"The right and wrong of this case is very clear and responsibility doesn't lie with the Chinese side," he said, adding that China has provided the details of the case.

India has trashed China's claim of sovereignty over the Galwan Valley, saying such "exaggerated" and "untenable" claims are contrary to the understanding reached during a high-level military dialogue on June 6.