Armed forces veterans on Friday sought answers from the government on the Ladakh clash in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed by Chinese troops and accused the administration of being “in denial” on incursions and “failure” at the political and military levels.

Admiral Arun Prakash, former navy chief and 1971 war hero, tweeted: “Why confusion about Galwan? Were jawans armed but overwhelmed? Any orders about ‘self-defence’? Or were they unarmed & outnumbered? Was anyone captured by PLA? Better for govt to take ppl into confidence than have public morale affected by Chinese propaganda. These are our boys.”

Neither the government nor the army has so far given details of what happened in Galwan Valley on Monday night. Nor did they officially confirm or deny reports about the release late on Thursday night of 10 Indian soldiers captured by the Chinese during the violent face-off on Monday.

Lieutenant General (retired) H.S. Panag blamed both the political and the military leadership for the situation in the Galwan Valley.

“The Chinese PLA intruded 2-3km into our side and now they are claiming that the Galwan Valley belongs to them. This transgression happened because of poor reading of the situation on the ground from our side,” he told The Telegraph.

The Chinese troops, he said, had come with a specific plan but the government had been living in denial by claiming there had been no incursion. “We were denying that there had been incursion, so they took advantage and started claiming that they are present in their territory. We played into their hands. On the ground we made a mistake and treated a proper military incident like a border incident. They came with a clear military intent. There has been failure on both political and military levels from our side,” Lt Gen Panag said.

Referring to the death of a colonelduring Monday’s face-off, he said: “It was a horrendous situation where a commanding officer was clubbed to death by the adversary. The Indian Army had never ever suffered this kind of humiliation.”

Another veteran said defence minister Rajnath Singh took nearly a month after the incursion to say that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army had come in “sizeable numbers” along the LAC.

“What message the government wanted to send to the Chinese by claiming all’s well even when they were already camping in our territory? Did we not know that this was not a picnic at the LAC but a very serious military conflict concerning India’s territorial sovereignty?” he said, preferring anonymity.