No, These Images Are Not From Recent LAC Clash In Arunachal Pradesh; Visuals Shared With Misleading Claims

Following the clash between Chinese and Indian forces in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh, a set of images showing two different groups of soldiers entering into a confrontation is going viral across social media.

On December 9, a stand-off occurred between soldiers from the two sides in an area called Yangtse in the Tawang sector in Arunachal Pradesh. On December 13, Home Minister Rajnath Singh notified parliament, claiming that there were no severe casualties on the Indian side.

Claim:

Image 1:

The image shows military personnel in different uniforms facing off against each other. The soldiers are standing in what appears to be a river stream located underneath a mountain cliffside.

Upendrra Rai, Editor-in-Chief of the Bharat Express News Network, tweeted the image with the following caption, "India-China skirmish in Arunachal Pradesh. More than 300 Chinese soldiers and aproxx 150 Indian soldiers were part of the Tawang clashes. Approx 100 Chinese soldiers injured, 12 captured by #IndianArmy ( later released) while number of injured Indian Soldiers are less than 20."

The image was circulated across Facebook as well, with the caption, "There has been a clash between the soldiers of India and China in Arunachal Pradesh. There are reports of injuries to soldiers of both the countries in the clash which took place on December 9 near Tawang. During this, Indian soldiers have given a befitting reply to China. An official statement from the Indian Army is awaited. In October 2021, there was a dispute between the soldiers of both the countries in Yangse of Arunachal Pradesh."

Image 2:

The viral image shows a purported Indian soldier kicking a Chinese soldier in the jaw. They are surrounded by a group of soldiers watching on.

The image is captioned, taking a dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi stating, "Dear @RahulGandhi, Indian Army is best Army in world. India can very well protect Indian land from China. Hope the latest video of Indian soldiers thrashing the Chinese have reached you. Enjoy it, and stop doing politics on this matter."

The image is viral across Facebook as well.

Fact Check:

Image 1:

We conducted a reverse image search on the image and came across a report by the New York Times published on September 24, 2021, titled, 'For India's Military, a Juggling Act on Two Hostile Fronts.'

The caption of the image found in the report reads, "A video frame grab released in February showed Chinese and Indian soldiers clashing at the Line of Actual Control in the Galwan Valley in June 2020.Credit...China Central Television, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images".

The NYT report indicates that the image is part of a video dated February 2021.

We also came across a report by NDTV titled, 'China Releases Galwan Clash Video, Shows Confrontation With Indian Troops,' published on February 19, 2021.

The report contains a video which at the 0.45 mark, shows the same visuals as seen in the viral image. The NDTV report notes that the video is from the Galwan clashes of 2020 and was tweeted by Chinese state media.

The video's description reads, "Hundreds of Indian and Chinese soldiers are seen in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley in a new video of last year's border faceoff tweeted by Chinese state media."

NDTV noted that the video comes after China had acknowledged that its army suffered casualties in the Galwan clashes.

Image 2:

We conducted a reverse image search and found a tweet by journalist Shiv Aroor published on October 13, 2015. The tweet contains a set of images, one of which shows the soldier kicking the other in the jaw.

Aroor captioned the image, "Great shots of Indian and Chinese army soldiers at joint exercise #HandInHand in Kunming, China today."

We conducted a keyword search for the 'Hand in Hand' joint exercise, which threw up an article by the Economic Times published on October 22, 2015. The article titled, India, China kick off joint anti-terror exercise 'Hand-in-Hand 2015' compiled several images from this exercise between India and China from 2015.

The viral image was featured in an article by NDTV titled, 'The China Challenge: When Military Adversaries Become Friends, ' published on October 22, 2015. The image in the article was captioned, "During 'Hand-in-Hand' exercises, not just with guns, Indian and Chinese soldiers also displayed their skills in martial arts."

The NDTV report notes that for two weeks, Indian and Chinese armies had participated in Hand-in-Hand practice in 2015, the fifth joint exercise between the two countries, held at the Kunming Military Academy in the Yunnan Province.

A report in Business Standard provides more details on the exercise titled, 'Indo-China Joint Military Exercise HAND-IN-HAND 2015' published on October 9, 2015.

"The Indo-China Combined Military Training Exercise HAND-IN-HAND 2015 will be conducted from 12 to October 23, 2015, at Kunming Military Academy, Yunnan, China," the Business Standard report noted.

Conclusion:

We found that the two images circulated as recent visuals from the LAC clash in Arunachal Pradesh are not from the incident. The photos show visuals from a confrontation between the two forces from the Galwan clashes of 2020 and a joint exercise from 2015. Hence, the two viral images are circulated with misleading claims.

If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.

Also Read: Old Photos Resurfaces To Claim That Chinese PLA Killed 300 Indian Soldiers In recent Tawang Clash