By IANS
New Delhi : Protests by Pakistan notwithstanding, a group of civilian and military mountaineers leaves here Wednesday for Leh in Jammu and Kashmir for an acclimatisation camp prior to trekking up the Siachen glacier.
“The expedition is on schedule. We are providing an Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft to fly the team to Leh tomorrow,” an official here said Tuesday.
Media reports Tuesday suggested that the expedition has been deferred following Pakistan’s protests against the Indian Army’s plans to open the Siachen region to adventure tourism, but the official said this was not so.
The Siachen Glacier was the world’s highest altitude battleground for over two decades until Pakistan and India agreed to a ceasefire in November 2003, and have since engaged in a dialogue to resolve the territorial dispute.
“We had thought we might have to delay the expedition but this had nothing to do with the Pakistani protest. It was because some of the necessary clearances had not come through. These have now been received and the expedition is very much on,” the official said.
The 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 undertake an eight-day, 24-km trek to the 16,000-foot high Kumar Post on the glacier, where the heights rise up to 22,000 feet and temperatures plummet to minus 50 degrees Celsius.
The team, 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.
India’s deputy high commissioner to Pakistan Manpreet Vohra was summoned by the foreign office to Monday to receive a “strong protest” and was handed over a demarche, stating that Siachen was a disputed region and that Pakistan was opposed to the Indian Army’s plans to initiate tourist activities in the area.
“The area (Siachen) remains a conflict zone and the reported move by India to open this for tourism could aggravate the situation with serious consequences that vitiate the atmosphere for the ongoing peace process,” Pakistan foreign office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said at her weekly briefing Monday.
Indian High Commission officials said Vohra, while receiving the note, reiterated New Delhi’s stand that the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir was an inalienable part of India.
The current expedition is the fourth to the glacier in the past few months.
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 are examined on a “case to case” basis, the official said.
The team, comprising eight climbers each from the two countries, climbed the 7,500-metre Mamostong Kangri peak during the July 30-Sep 1 expedition.
The Indian Army’s 102 Infantry Brigade, 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.
“The Siachen glacier is ideal for adventure tourism and the weather is just right for this at this time of the year,” the official explained, adding that since the 2003 ceasefire, “the area has become safer and it is possible to conduct such activities”.