According to a report published in an Australian newspaper, after Col. Fabao had left the arena, PLA soldiers were panicked into retreat after having watched the bodies of Major Chen Hongrun, Junior Sargeant Xiao Siyan, and Private Chen Xianrong.
The account of the Galwan Valley violence in an Australian newspaper called The Klaxon, which has been put together by a group of social media researchers, it claims that the Chinese army personnel who got drowned in the Galwan Violence in June 2020 were in fact in retreat after having clashed with the Indian troops.
As per the report, the Chinese army had lost 42 soldiers during the clash with India as compared to the four stated by the People’s Liberation Army of China. The soldiers got panicked into retreating and around 38 of those soldiers got washed away as per reports. The Editor of The Klaxon, Anthony Klan has stated that the Indian soldiers had come to see if their Chinese counterparts had removed their encampments in the buffer zone when the violence broke out. When the Chinese soldiers were heading back across the river, there is evidence that suggests the soldiers got washed away due to the panic created amongst them.
He further added that a lot of this information has been retrieved from first-hand accounts that were deleted from Chinese Social Media. The report mentions that India’s COl. Santosh Babu along with his troops had gone to the area that was disputed on June 15 in an attempt to remove the encampments of the Chinese army, where PLA’s Colonel Qi Fabao was present with his troop of nearly 150 soldiers. Fabao ordered his troops to form a battle formation rather than trying to discuss issues along the lines of mutual consent that was made on June 6, 2020.
The Chinese Col. had attacked the troops of India and to make way for him to escape, 2 soldiers from the PLA, battalion commander Chen Hongjun and soldier Chen Xiangrong suddenly started a physical tussle with the Indian troops with the use of steel pipes, sticks, and stones. Col. Fabao got hit in the head by Indian army personnel and was rushed back with some severe injuries.
The article that was named, Galwan decoded, has clearly stated that after Col. Fabao left the premise, and watching the dead bodies of both the soldiers who got killed by the Indian Army, the rest of the PLA soldiers got panicked and tried to retreat. The Chinese soldiers were not wearing any water pants and still decided to cross the icy water in the pitch dark. When the river suddenly rose, it caused the injured soldiers to fall and eventually got washed away downstream.
Colonel Santosh Babu sacrificed his life along with 19 soldiers of the Indian troop during the clash with China.