Rajnath Singh meets jawans of 16 Bihar Regiment that gave Chinese a bloody nose

New Delhi, July 19: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday met Indian Army jawans of 16 Bihar, who fought aggression of Xinjiang military district troops at Galwan Y nullah on June 15, during his visit to a forward post near the Line of Control in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir.

The defence minister's office tweeted the video where Singh is seen interacting with the jawans in Lukung base camp near Pangong Tso in Ladakh.

He also shook hands of the battalion officers and men while praising them for their bravery against all odds.

It should be noted that it was this 16th battalion of Bihar regiment, or 16 Bihar, whose soldiers fought off numerically superior Chinese troops at the cost of their own lives in the remote Galwan Valley on June 15.

An attack on the commanding officer of the 16 Bihar Colonel Santosh Babu was reported to be the trigger for the bloody scuffle.

With both sides now involved in dis-engagement at Galwan sector, 16 Bihar and the PLA unit from Sichuan it faced on June 15 have been taken out of the frontline as it could spark of conflagration again.

Singh, accompanied by Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and Army Chief General MM Naravane, also interacted with the soldiers deployed there.

Later, Singh, along with Rawat and Naravane, also offered prayers at the Amarnath Temple, just two days ahead of the commencement of the Yatra.

On Friday, Defence Minister reviewed the overall security scenario in Jammu and Kashmir with the top military brass, officials said.

He asked the armed forces to give a fitting reply to any "misadventure" by Pakistan.

At a high-level meeting, the defence minister had also asked the armed forces to maintain a strict vigil along the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan.