A statue of Col. Babu was unveiled Tuesday at Suryapet by Telangana minister K.T. Rama Rao. Col. Babu was from Suryapet, 140 km from Hyderabad. (DC)

New Delhi: Army Chief Gen. M.M. Naravane on Tuesday paid homage to 20 Indian soldiers who sacrificed their lives fighting Chinese PLA troops in the Galwan Valley last year while defending the nation’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. Gen. Naravane said their valour will be eternally etched in the nation’s memory.

The Leh-based Fire and Fury Corps also remembered the martyrs of Galwan on the first anniversary of the clash. In a solemn ceremony, Maj. Gen. Akash Kaushik, chief of staff, Fire and Fury Corps, laid a wreath at the iconic Leh War Memorial on the occasion. “The nation will remain eternally grateful to these gallant soldiers who fought in the most difficult high-altitude terrain and made the supreme sacrifice in service of the nation,” the Army said. The Indian Army lost 20 soldiers, including Col. B. Santosh Babu, the commanding officer of 16 Bihar, during the clash on June 15 last year.

A statue of Col. Babu was unveiled Tuesday at Suryapet by Telangana minister K.T. Rama Rao. Col. Babu was from Suryapet, 140 km from Hyderabad.

During the clash, Indian observers counted over 60 Chinese casualties being picked up on stretchers and taken back. Only in February this year, China for the first time officially acknowledged four of its soldiers were killed and one officer seriously injured in the Galwan clash.