By IANS
New Delhi : The Siachen glacier in Jammu and Kashmir, considered the world’s highest battlefield where Indian and Pakistani armies fought a bitter conflict for over two decades, has now been opened to civilian climbers, with two expeditions underway and a third scheduled to kick-off later this month.
In fact, a 16-member Indian-French joint team was the first to benefit from the Indian Army’s new open-door policy under which proposals to launch expeditions to the glacier, where the heights rise to 22,000 feet, are examined on a “case to case” basis, an officer said.
The team, comprising eight climbers each from the two countries, climbed the 7,500-metre Mamostong Kangri peak during the July 30-Sept 1 expedition.
“The Siachen glacier is ideal for adventure tourism and the weather is just right for this at this time of the year,” the officer explained, adding that since the 2003 ceasefire with Pakistan, “the area has become safer and it is possible to conduct such activities.”
Towards this, a 20-member team comprising cadets from the Indian Military Academy, the Rashtriya Indian Military College and the National Cadet Corps, as also a few civilians nominated by the Indian Mountaineering Association will assemble at Leh prior to a eight-day, 24-km trek to the 16,000-foot high Kumar Post on the glacier.
The team, which will be accompanied by 10 army glacial experts, will undergo one week of acclimatisation at Leh, followed by a four-day orientation course at the same place.
The team will then move to the Siachen Base Camp for four days of training in glacial craft before setting off for Kumar Post.
Meanwhile, the Indian Army’s 102 Infantry Brigade that is responsible for guarding the glacier, Aug 29 launched an expedition to Mamostong Kangri. The team, comprising three officers, three junior commissioned officers and 27 other ranks, is scheduled to return Sep 29.
On Sep 6, a 10-member team comprising four army personnel and six civilians set off for the 6,700-metre Rimo peak in the Nubra Valley. The expedition is likely to last for a month.
All this does not mean that there is any letup in the Indian position that there can be no pullback of troops till Pakistan agrees to ground realities on the glacier.
This is something that Defence Minister A.K. Antony and Indian Army chief Gen. J.J. Singh have repeatedly stated.
Indian troops currently occupy advantageous positions along the 76-km-long glacier and New Delhi says Islamabad must accept the actual ground position line (AGPL) before pulling back its forces that have been on station on the glacier since 1984.
For Pakistan to do so would, in effect, amount to accepting the AGPL as the international border (IB), which would mean a total reversal of its stand that Indian troops retreat to the positions they held in 1972 as laid down by the Simla Agreement of the previous year.
This, India says, would negate the very reasons it sent its troops into Siachen in 1984 to nullify Pakistani designs on the glacier.
Since then, Indian and Pakistani troops have been engaged in a bitter standoff, with a truce having been declared in the area in 2003.
It’s not just the heights India commands. Siachen serves as a strategic wedge between Pakistani and Chinese troops deployed on their borders with India.
Military analysts warn that any Indian pullback – without guarantees of the AGPL being respected – would enable the two armies link up and threaten the Ladakh valley to the south and even the Kargil region.
Over 600 Indian soldiers have died in Siachen during the past 20 years, a majority of them victims of the extreme weather conditions in the area.