India to skip opening, closing ceremonies of Olympics over China using Galwan soldier as torchbearer

New Delhi, Feb 3: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday said that India's charge d'affaires will be skipping the opening and closing ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics after China choose a soldier involved in the Galwan valley clash as a torchbearer for Beijing Olympics 2022.

"It is regrettable that China has chosen to politicise the Olympics. The Indian envoy will not attend the opening or closing ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics," MEA on reports of China making Galwan soldier torchbearer.

State-owned DD Sports channel will not telecast the live opening and closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics being held in Beijing, CEO Prasar Bharati, Shashi Shekhar Vempati, said.

China's People's Liberation Army's regimental commander, who had suffered severe injuries during the Galwan clash, became the torchbearer at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Torch Relay on Wednesday, reported local media.

Qi Fabao, the regimental commander from the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Xinjiang military command, who suffered a serious head injury during the Galwan Valley border skirmish on June 15, 2020, took the flame from Wang Meng, China's four-time Olympic short track speed skating champion, at Winter Olympic Park on Wednesday, reported Global Times.

In the first deadly clash in the border area in nearly five decades, 20 Indian soldiers were killed on June 15 last year in the Galwan Valley in fierce hand-to-hand combat with Chinese troops, triggering a large deployment of troops and heavy weaponry by both armies at the friction points in eastern Ladakh.

In February, China officially acknowledged that five Chinese military officers and soldiers were killed in the clashes with the Indian Army though it is widely believed that the death toll was higher.