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| Pak continues to bleed India on Siachen | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, June 1: Expectedly Pakistan has not accepted modalities submitted by India for the demilitarisation of the 64-km long Siachen mountain glacier. The modalities had been dished out by the Indian team headed by the Defence secretary, Pradeep Kumar, during the two-day talks with his counterpart, Lt. Gen. (Retd) Syed Athar Ali.
Though the talks did not fail but they did not achieve the desired results of seeing the mountain glacier free of armed hostilities. What actually resulted in the delay in the framing of any agreement was Pakistan side's insistence on getting Beijing included in the parleys because China too has been occupying part of the glacier's Saksham valley. India opposed it on the plea that the entire Siachen glacier belt including the Saksham valley had been the part of undivided Jammu and Kashmir state.
Hence if India and Pakistan failed to agree on the modalities for demilitarization of Siachen it decided to continue talks to arrive at a solution to one of the major vexed issues. With both sides being in principle agreement over demilitarization of the once world's highest battlefield, India is insisting that Pakistan should authenticate present troop position of the two sides.
Siachen, the world's highest militarised zone, has been a long-pending issue between India and Pakistan because of differences on the location of the 110-km long Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL) which passes through the Soltoro Ridge and Siachen glacier.
Till early 1984 the entire mountain belt had remained unmanned but after the Pakistani troops started occupying the heights the Indian troops were rushed to push the intruders back. This resulted in the first ever fierce gun battle between the two sides. Though since 2003 there has been no major ceasefire violations New Delhi is keen to get the mountain belt demilitarised so that the heavy expenses incurred on maintaining the troops were avoided.
One thing baffled political and security experts in India. They say that despite Islamabad being in the soup following the growing threat from the terrorists and extremists and signs of strained relations with Washington after Osama bin Laden's elimination Pakistan continues to follow its traditional anti-India approach and stance.
No doubt the Indian troops are placed on an advantageous position as compared to the Pakistani forces on the mountain glacier because "our soldiers" have been deployed on heights ranging between 18000 feet and 20,000 feet but the cost of maintaining the Indian forces was much higher than the one entailed by the Pakistan troops. In addition to this the chances for the Indian troops suffering from frostbite and other physical ailments were higher than the other side.
Official reports says that more Indian soldiers had died not in exchange of fire but owing to weather related problems. Hence India has been keen to get the area demilitarised but it seems that Pakistan wants to continue with its policy of bleeding India.
Experts are of the opinion that the Siachen dispute was not as complicated as that of the Kashmir issue and hence if Islamabad adopted flexible and genuine approach the problem can be sorted out within a day or two. It is hoped that the Siachen dispute is resolved during the next meeting the two sides plan to have. |
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