在印中兩國軍隊的後方，雖然都各有槍枝，大砲和坦克。但在發生衝突的當晚：6月15日夜晚，兩方人馬只使用了棍棒與石頭，但這樣已足以讓人致命。
在一陣叫囂、辱罵、爭吵以及動手之後，雙方都放下石塊與棍棒，據悉至少有20名印度軍人死在拉達克山區風景優美如畫的加爾旺河谷。
中國傷亡人數，雖未知確切數字，但看起來比起印度軍對的慘狀猶有過之，這是中國與印度45年來，爭議不斷的邊界區，首次有人因衝突械鬥而死亡之事件。
先前幾個多月，印中雙方在拉達克三個地點一直處於對峙狀態，4月中國人民解放軍（PLA）突然停止演習的方式，向印度與中國處於爭議的邊界：實際控制線（LAC）前進，並強行佔領了些許邊境哨所。
雙方也立刻集結重型裝備與大量部隊，5月，在拉達克的Pangong湖和東面1200公里的錫金的納庫拉（Naku La），發生了兩次爆炸，造成雙方重傷。據印度估計，中國人民解放軍已經奪取了印度土地將近40~60平方公里的領土。
THE TWO armies each had guns, artillery and tanks to the rear. But they wielded only sticks and stones at the front, as night fell on June 15th. That was deadly enough. When the brawl ended, and the final rocks had been thrown, at least 20 Indian troops lay dead in the picturesque Galwan valley, high in the mountains of Ladakh. Chinese casualties are unknown. They were the first combat fatalities on the mountainous border between India and China in 45 years, drawing to a close an era in which Asia’s two largest powers had managed their differences without bloodshed.
The Indian and Chinese armies had been locked in a stand-off at three sites in Ladakh, an Indian territory at the northernmost tip of the country, for over a month. In April the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) broke off from exercises and occupied a series of remote border posts along the disputed frontier, known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Both sides quickly moved troops and heavy weapons towards the LAC. As troops squared off, punch-ups erupted twice in May, at Pangong lake, in Ladakh, and at Naku La in Sikkim, 1,200km to the east, resulting in serious injuries on both sides. In total, the PLA grabbed around 40 to 60 square kilometres of territory that India considers to be its own, estimates Lieutenant-General H.S. Panag, a former head of the Indian army’s northern command.
source The Economist