Aaj Tak, Times Now spin 1962 war cemetery as graveyard of China’s Galwan casualties

Welcome to Monday night misinformation. Aaj Tak, the Hindi news channel of the India Today group, today broadcast a video claiming that it was of a cemetery of Chinese soldiers killed in a clash with Indian troops in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley in June 2020.

Times Now made similar claims in a news segment today.

The video aired by the two channels actually shows a military cemetery in Kangxiwa town in Aksai Chin region that contains the graves of Chinese soldiers who were killed in the Sino-Indian war in 1962. This is corroborated by a recent article from China Tibet News, a website run by the Chinese regime.

But Aaj Tak was economical with the truth. “After clashing with India, more than 40 Chinese soldiers were killed. As you can see on your TV screens, tributes are being offered to their graves,” claimed anchor Rohit Sardana, who added that the video answered the questions of all those who wanted evidence of Chinese casualties during the clash in June.

In another broadcast, India Today amplified this misinformation with graphics making similar claims. It invited Col Vinayak Bhat, apparently a “defence expert”, who clarified that the cemetery contained fallen soldiers of the 1962 war. “But then, the photographs and the videos that have come show new graves also,” Bhat said. It is not clear which videos and pictures he was referring to. He added that he did not have satellite images of the cemetery from after December 2019.

Earlier, multiple media outlets, including India Today, Zee News and Times of India had claimed that a tombstone of a Chinese soldier proved that he was one of those killed during the Ladakh clashes in June. The photo’s authenticity is yet to be confirmed.

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