India rejects 'malicious' Pakistani media report of soldier deaths

India on Monday rejected as "utterly baseless, malicious and mischievous" reports in a section of the Pakistani media claiming that over 150 Indian Army soldiers died in Sikkim due to a Chinese rocket attack.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay said that "such reports are utterly baseless, malicious and mischievous. No cognisance should be taken of them by responsible media".

His response was to a report by Pakistan's Dunya news channel claiming that 158 Indian soldiers were killed in a Chinese cross border rocket attack.

Dunya said that many Indian soldiers were also wounded in the purported rocket attack. It said "A two-minute footage that was broadcast on China Central Television showed the Chinese soldiers attacking an 'enemy position' using rocket launchers, machine guns, and mortars".

Bilateral tension between China and India has escalated over the past few weeks over a stand-off between their armies in Doklam region in the Sikkim sector, with Beijing demanding that New Delhi withdraw its troops for any dialogue to take place.

The Chinese state-run media has also been openly talking of war and of teaching India a "lesson" like the defeat of the 1962 war.

--IANS

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