Tibetan soldier's death near tense India-China border sheds light on covert unit

https://sg.news.yahoo.com ^ | 9/3/2020 | Rupam Jain and Devjyot Ghoshal

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MUMBAI/ NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The death of a Tibetan member of an Indian special forces unit in a mine blast near the site of a border flare-up with Chinese troops has offered a rare glimpse into a little-known group of elite, high-altitude warriors.

Tenzin Nyima, 53, was killed and another commando critically wounded in the blast near the shores of the Pangong Tso lake in the western Himalayas, three Indian government officials and two members of his family told Reuters.

Indian and Chinese forces came close to direct confrontation in the area over the weekend over competing territorial claims, their governments have said.

Nyima was part of the Special Frontier Force (SFF), his family and three Indian government officials said.

The force recruits mostly from Tibetan refugees, hundreds of thousands of whom have made India their home since the Dalai Lama fled Tibet following a failed uprising in 1959. Some are Indian citizens.

Few details are publicly known about the covert force set up soon after a war between India and China in 1962. Two officials estimated its strength at more than 3,500 men.

[RomanSoldier19]

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