rkjindal91
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A few Points to be discussed.
Data and Information from various sources:
INTRODUCTION
The Siachen Glacier is located in the eastern Karakoram range in the Himalaya Mountains at about 35.5°N 77.0°E, just east of the Line of Control between India- Pakistan. India controls all of the Siachen Glacier itself, including all tributary glaciers.
At 70 km (43 mi) long, it is the longest glacier in the Karakoram and second-longest in the world's non-polar areas. It falls from an altitude of 5,753 m (18,875 ft) above sea level at its head at Indira Col on the China border down to 3,620 m (11,875 ft) at its terminus.
The Siachen Glacier lies immediately south of the great watershed that separates China from the Indian subcontinent in the extensivelyglaciated portion of the Karakoram that is sometimes called the "Third Pole."
IMPORTANCE OF SIACHEN:
The Indian Army has opposed scaling down military presence on the 76-km long glacier as it acts as a wedge between the Shaksgam valley under Chinese control and Baltistan, occupied by Pakistan. Security experts argue that occupation of the glacier will not allow the Pakistani Army to link up with the Chinese and threaten Ladakh.
India also has the advantage of holding high ground Pakistani posts are located 3,000 feet below. If we vacate our positions and there's any misadventure by the Pakistanis, recapturing those heights will be very difficult, as told by an officer.
Rimo (I), the peak, located east of the Siachen Glacier, overlooks the northwestern areas of the Aksai-Chin area which is occupied by China but claimed by India. The Indian military believed that such expeditions (Expeditions by Pak Forces to the peak discussed below) could further a link for a trade route from the southwestern (Pakistani) to the northeastern (Chinese) side of the Karakoram Range and eventually provide a strategic, if not tactical, advantage to the Pakistani Armed Forces.
Ironicaly According to the UN officails Siachen was a cold, useless, barren region over which there could be hardly any dispute between India and Pakistan.
PROVOCATION BY PAKISTAN:
OROPOLITICS
In 1957 Pakistan permitted a British expedition under Eric Shipton to approach the Siachen through the Bilafond La, and recce Saltoro Kangri.
Five years later a Japanese-Pakistani expedition put two Japanese and a Pakistani Army climber on top of Saltoro Kangri.
These were early moves in this particular game of oropolitics.
The United States Defense Mapping Agency (now National Geospatial- Intelligence Agency) began in about 1967 to show, with no legal or historical justification or any boundary documentation, an international boundary on their Tactical Pilotage Charts available to the public and pilots as proceeding from NJ9842 east-northeast to the Karakoram Pass at 5,534 m (18,136 ft) on the China border. Numerous governmental and private cartographers and atlas producers followed suit. This resulted in the US cartographically "awarding" the entire 5,000 square kilometers (1,900 square miles) of the Siachen-Saltoro area to Pakistan.
In the 1970s and early 1980s several mountaineering expeditions applied to Pakistan to climb high peaks in the Siachen area due in part to U.S Defense Mapping Agency and most other maps and atlases showing it on the Pakistani side of the line.
Taking the advantage of US's maps and ignorance of Indian Authorities, Pakistan granted a number of permits. This in turn reinforced the Pakistani claim on the area, as these expeditions arrived on the glacier with a permit obtained from the Government of Pakistan. Teram Kangri I (7,465 m/24,491 ft) and Teram Kangri II (7,406 m/24,298 ft) were climbed in 1975 by a Japanese expedition led by H. Katayama, which approached through Pakistan via the Bilafond La. Thus Pakistan began to claim Siachen (a no man's land) at international level without having a permanent presence in the area.
The Indian government and military took notice.
In response India began expeditions to the peaks from its side of LOC, the first one being the 1978 expedition of Teram Kangri II. It was a balancing act by Indian Government considering the Pakistani ambitions in the area which were revealed during 1947 and 1965. Also India had been extra precautiuos after the 1962 Sino-Indian war.
Threatened by the Indian presence at army headquarters in Rawalpindi, Pakistani generals decided they had better stake a claim to Siachen before India did. Islamabad then committed an intelligence blunder.
FAILURE:
Pakistan decided to send its troops to the Siachen and capture key passes and ridges. But say it destiny, they created a blunder.
According to a now retired Pakistani army colonel.
"They ordered Arctic-weather gear from a London outfitters who also supplied the Indians," says the colonel.
"Once the Indians got wind of it, they ordered 300 outfits twice as many as we had and rushed their men up to Siachen."
Thus The Indians were soon informed about the Pakistani intentions and immediately put their plan into action, providing them the all-important head start.
OPERATION MEGHDOOT:
The Cloud Messenger
On 13 April, 1984, the Indian Army made its move onto the glacier to defend the territory along with the peaks and passes around it when it launched "Operation Meghdoot".
The operation was launched under the command of Lieutenant General P N Hoon, the then army commander of the Indian Army's Northern Command based at Udhampur in Jammu & Kashmir in India.
Reportedly the operation pre empted Pakistani Army by about 4 days, as intelligence reported that Pakistan was to launch an operation on 17 April, 1984.
Named after the divine cloud messenger (Meghaduuta) in a Sanskrit play , the operation involved the airlifting of Indian Army soldiers by the Indian Air Force (IAF) and dropping them in the glacial area. The IAF used planes such as the Il-76, An-12 and An-32 to transport stores and troops as well to airdrop supplies to high altitude airfields. Helicopters like Mi-17, Mi-8, Chetak and Cheetah carried provisions and personnel to areas near hitherto unscaled peaks. Approximately 300 troops were soon up on the important peaks and passes of the glacier.
By the time Pakistan troops managed to get into the immediate area, they found that the Indian troops had occupied the major mountain passes on the Saltoro Ridge west ofSiachen Glacier.
Handicapped by the altitude and the limited time, Pakistan could only manage to control the Saltoro Ridge's western slopes and foothills despite the fact that Pakistan possessed more accessible routes to the area, unlike Indian access to the Siachen which was largely reliant on air drops.
SUBSEQUENT FAILURES AND EMBARRASSMENT:
Since 1984 Pakistan has launched several attempts to displace the Indian forces, but with little success.
The most well known was in 1987, when an attempt was made by Pakistan to dislodge India from the area. The attack was masterminded by Pervez Musharraf(later President of Pakistan) heading a newly raised elite SSG commando unit raised with United States Special Operations Forces help in the area. A special garrison with eight thousand troops was built at Khapalu. The immediate aim was to capture Bilafond La but after bitter fighting that included hand to hand combat, the Pakistanis were thrown back and the positions remained the same.
The only Param Vir Chakra India's highest gallantry award to be awarded for combat in the Siachen area went to Naib Subedar Bana Singh (retired as Subedar Major/Honorary Captain), who in a daring daylight raid assaulted and captured a Pakistani post atop a 22,000 foot (6,700 m) peak, now named Bana Post, after climbing a 457 m (1500 feet) ice cliff face.
Further attempts to reclaim positions were launched by Pakistan in 1990, 1995, 1996 and even in early 1999, just prior to the Lahore Summit. The 1995 attack by Pakistan SSG was significant as it resulted in 40 casualties for Pakistan troops without any changes in the positions. An However Indian IAF MI-17 helicopter was shot down in 1996.
One of the factors behind the Kargil War in 1999 when Pakistan sent infiltrators to occupy vacated Indian posts across the Line of Control was their belief that India would be forced to withdraw from Siachen in exchange of a Pakistani withdrawal from Kargil. Both sides had previously desired to disengage from the costly military outposts but after the Kargil War, India decided to maintain its military outposts on the glacier, wary of further Pakistani incursions into Kashmir if they vacate from the Siachen Glacier posts without an official recognition from Pakistan of the current positions.
INDIAN DOMINANCE:
India has a genuine reason for the control of Siachen: A wedge between Pak-China Strategic/Tactical Link.
In 1984, Pakistan was beaten to the Saltoro Ridge high ground by about a week. The two northern passes Sia La and Bilafond La were quickly secured by India.
When the Pakistanis hiked up to the glacier, they found that a 300-man Indian battalion was already there, dug into the highest mountaintops.
The contentious area is about 900 square miles (2,300 km2) to nearly 1,000 square miles (2,600 km2) of territory in India.
India has established control over all of the 70 kilometres (43 mi) long Siachen Glacier and all of its tributary glaciers, as well as the three main passes of the Saltoro Ridge immediately west of the glacier Sia La, Bilafond La, and Gyong La.
Since September 2007, India has opened up mountaineering and trekking expeditions to the forbidding glacial heights.
The first group included cadets from
1)Chail Military School
2)National Defence Academy
3)National Cadet Corps
4)Indian Military Academy,
4)Rashtriya
5)Indian Military College
and family members of armed forces officers.
The expeditions are also meant to show to the international audience that Indian troops hold "almost all dominating heights" on the important Saltoro Ridge and to show that Pakistani troops are not within 15 miles (24 km) of the 43.5-mile (70 km) Siachen Glacier.
Ignoring protests from Pakistan, India maintains that it does not need anyone's approval to send trekkers to Siachen, in what it says is essentially its own territory.
In addition, the Indian Army's Army Mountaineering Institute (AMI) functions out of the region.
PRESENT SCENARIO: International Support To India
My Assessment
Official figures for maintaining a force of about 3000 men and about 150 outposts are put at ~$300 and ~$200 million for India and Pakistan respectively.
$200 million for a useless barren region mean a lot for a country like Pakistan at its present state.
Pakistan's biggest ally America
The Chief of Staff of the US Army, General George Caseyon in a clear support to Indian stand on Siachen, on October 17, 2008 visited the Siachen Glacier along with Indian Army Chief, General Deepak Kapoor.
Despite of such a formidable position and importance of Siachen India is willing to vacate the heights in favour of peace and friendship with its neighbours.
Recenlty 12th round of talks, after a gap of 3 years since 2008 (Thanks to 26/11 which ISI is alleged to have carried out) with Pakistan failed to 'Break Ice over Siachen'. This was mainly due to unclear and doubtful intentions of Pakistan. With Pakistan dragging its feet on providing clear-cut guarantees for authentication of the 110-km Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL) in the Saltoro Ridge-Siachen region, no significant breakthrough is on the cards in the festering bilateral dispute.
Pakistan has been dilly-dallying on the matter, and in the past has demanded that the pre-1972 troop positions be recognised since it feels India violated'' the Simla Agreement by occupying the heights in 1984. This is despite the fact that Pakistan itself wanted to takeover Siachen but failed to do so due to their own incompetence.
Both sides have long accepted the need to demilitarize the glacial heights, with soldiers deployed at heights ranging from 16,000 to 22,000 feet in extreme weather and terrain.
India has told Pakistan that it is flexible on the methodology to be adopted for verification of the proposed demilitarized zone but would insist on some map coordinates, obtained through aerial or satellite imagery, to show the relative positions on the ground".
India is in no hurry to vacate its posts. The Indian Army no longer bleeds heavily as it used to in the earlier years after it pre -empted Pakistan's Operation Ababeel'' to occupy the heights in April 1984 by just a day with its own Operation Meghdoot''.
However Pakistan owing to its present economic, security conditions and its international political relations cannot afford to spend time and money over Siachen.
All India want is an official statement from Pakistan that it will not try to take over Siachen once India steps down.
Data and Information from various sources:
INTRODUCTION
The Siachen Glacier is located in the eastern Karakoram range in the Himalaya Mountains at about 35.5°N 77.0°E, just east of the Line of Control between India- Pakistan. India controls all of the Siachen Glacier itself, including all tributary glaciers.
At 70 km (43 mi) long, it is the longest glacier in the Karakoram and second-longest in the world's non-polar areas. It falls from an altitude of 5,753 m (18,875 ft) above sea level at its head at Indira Col on the China border down to 3,620 m (11,875 ft) at its terminus.
The Siachen Glacier lies immediately south of the great watershed that separates China from the Indian subcontinent in the extensivelyglaciated portion of the Karakoram that is sometimes called the "Third Pole."
IMPORTANCE OF SIACHEN:
The Indian Army has opposed scaling down military presence on the 76-km long glacier as it acts as a wedge between the Shaksgam valley under Chinese control and Baltistan, occupied by Pakistan. Security experts argue that occupation of the glacier will not allow the Pakistani Army to link up with the Chinese and threaten Ladakh.
India also has the advantage of holding high ground Pakistani posts are located 3,000 feet below. If we vacate our positions and there's any misadventure by the Pakistanis, recapturing those heights will be very difficult, as told by an officer.
Rimo (I), the peak, located east of the Siachen Glacier, overlooks the northwestern areas of the Aksai-Chin area which is occupied by China but claimed by India. The Indian military believed that such expeditions (Expeditions by Pak Forces to the peak discussed below) could further a link for a trade route from the southwestern (Pakistani) to the northeastern (Chinese) side of the Karakoram Range and eventually provide a strategic, if not tactical, advantage to the Pakistani Armed Forces.
Ironicaly According to the UN officails Siachen was a cold, useless, barren region over which there could be hardly any dispute between India and Pakistan.
PROVOCATION BY PAKISTAN:
OROPOLITICS
In 1957 Pakistan permitted a British expedition under Eric Shipton to approach the Siachen through the Bilafond La, and recce Saltoro Kangri.
Five years later a Japanese-Pakistani expedition put two Japanese and a Pakistani Army climber on top of Saltoro Kangri.
These were early moves in this particular game of oropolitics.
The United States Defense Mapping Agency (now National Geospatial- Intelligence Agency) began in about 1967 to show, with no legal or historical justification or any boundary documentation, an international boundary on their Tactical Pilotage Charts available to the public and pilots as proceeding from NJ9842 east-northeast to the Karakoram Pass at 5,534 m (18,136 ft) on the China border. Numerous governmental and private cartographers and atlas producers followed suit. This resulted in the US cartographically "awarding" the entire 5,000 square kilometers (1,900 square miles) of the Siachen-Saltoro area to Pakistan.
In the 1970s and early 1980s several mountaineering expeditions applied to Pakistan to climb high peaks in the Siachen area due in part to U.S Defense Mapping Agency and most other maps and atlases showing it on the Pakistani side of the line.
Taking the advantage of US's maps and ignorance of Indian Authorities, Pakistan granted a number of permits. This in turn reinforced the Pakistani claim on the area, as these expeditions arrived on the glacier with a permit obtained from the Government of Pakistan. Teram Kangri I (7,465 m/24,491 ft) and Teram Kangri II (7,406 m/24,298 ft) were climbed in 1975 by a Japanese expedition led by H. Katayama, which approached through Pakistan via the Bilafond La. Thus Pakistan began to claim Siachen (a no man's land) at international level without having a permanent presence in the area.
The Indian government and military took notice.
In response India began expeditions to the peaks from its side of LOC, the first one being the 1978 expedition of Teram Kangri II. It was a balancing act by Indian Government considering the Pakistani ambitions in the area which were revealed during 1947 and 1965. Also India had been extra precautiuos after the 1962 Sino-Indian war.
Threatened by the Indian presence at army headquarters in Rawalpindi, Pakistani generals decided they had better stake a claim to Siachen before India did. Islamabad then committed an intelligence blunder.
FAILURE:
Pakistan decided to send its troops to the Siachen and capture key passes and ridges. But say it destiny, they created a blunder.
According to a now retired Pakistani army colonel.
"They ordered Arctic-weather gear from a London outfitters who also supplied the Indians," says the colonel.
"Once the Indians got wind of it, they ordered 300 outfits twice as many as we had and rushed their men up to Siachen."
Thus The Indians were soon informed about the Pakistani intentions and immediately put their plan into action, providing them the all-important head start.
OPERATION MEGHDOOT:
The Cloud Messenger
On 13 April, 1984, the Indian Army made its move onto the glacier to defend the territory along with the peaks and passes around it when it launched "Operation Meghdoot".
The operation was launched under the command of Lieutenant General P N Hoon, the then army commander of the Indian Army's Northern Command based at Udhampur in Jammu & Kashmir in India.
Reportedly the operation pre empted Pakistani Army by about 4 days, as intelligence reported that Pakistan was to launch an operation on 17 April, 1984.
Named after the divine cloud messenger (Meghaduuta) in a Sanskrit play , the operation involved the airlifting of Indian Army soldiers by the Indian Air Force (IAF) and dropping them in the glacial area. The IAF used planes such as the Il-76, An-12 and An-32 to transport stores and troops as well to airdrop supplies to high altitude airfields. Helicopters like Mi-17, Mi-8, Chetak and Cheetah carried provisions and personnel to areas near hitherto unscaled peaks. Approximately 300 troops were soon up on the important peaks and passes of the glacier.
By the time Pakistan troops managed to get into the immediate area, they found that the Indian troops had occupied the major mountain passes on the Saltoro Ridge west ofSiachen Glacier.
Handicapped by the altitude and the limited time, Pakistan could only manage to control the Saltoro Ridge's western slopes and foothills despite the fact that Pakistan possessed more accessible routes to the area, unlike Indian access to the Siachen which was largely reliant on air drops.
SUBSEQUENT FAILURES AND EMBARRASSMENT:
Since 1984 Pakistan has launched several attempts to displace the Indian forces, but with little success.
The most well known was in 1987, when an attempt was made by Pakistan to dislodge India from the area. The attack was masterminded by Pervez Musharraf(later President of Pakistan) heading a newly raised elite SSG commando unit raised with United States Special Operations Forces help in the area. A special garrison with eight thousand troops was built at Khapalu. The immediate aim was to capture Bilafond La but after bitter fighting that included hand to hand combat, the Pakistanis were thrown back and the positions remained the same.
The only Param Vir Chakra India's highest gallantry award to be awarded for combat in the Siachen area went to Naib Subedar Bana Singh (retired as Subedar Major/Honorary Captain), who in a daring daylight raid assaulted and captured a Pakistani post atop a 22,000 foot (6,700 m) peak, now named Bana Post, after climbing a 457 m (1500 feet) ice cliff face.
Further attempts to reclaim positions were launched by Pakistan in 1990, 1995, 1996 and even in early 1999, just prior to the Lahore Summit. The 1995 attack by Pakistan SSG was significant as it resulted in 40 casualties for Pakistan troops without any changes in the positions. An However Indian IAF MI-17 helicopter was shot down in 1996.
One of the factors behind the Kargil War in 1999 when Pakistan sent infiltrators to occupy vacated Indian posts across the Line of Control was their belief that India would be forced to withdraw from Siachen in exchange of a Pakistani withdrawal from Kargil. Both sides had previously desired to disengage from the costly military outposts but after the Kargil War, India decided to maintain its military outposts on the glacier, wary of further Pakistani incursions into Kashmir if they vacate from the Siachen Glacier posts without an official recognition from Pakistan of the current positions.
INDIAN DOMINANCE:
India has a genuine reason for the control of Siachen: A wedge between Pak-China Strategic/Tactical Link.
In 1984, Pakistan was beaten to the Saltoro Ridge high ground by about a week. The two northern passes Sia La and Bilafond La were quickly secured by India.
When the Pakistanis hiked up to the glacier, they found that a 300-man Indian battalion was already there, dug into the highest mountaintops.
The contentious area is about 900 square miles (2,300 km2) to nearly 1,000 square miles (2,600 km2) of territory in India.
India has established control over all of the 70 kilometres (43 mi) long Siachen Glacier and all of its tributary glaciers, as well as the three main passes of the Saltoro Ridge immediately west of the glacier Sia La, Bilafond La, and Gyong La.
Since September 2007, India has opened up mountaineering and trekking expeditions to the forbidding glacial heights.
The first group included cadets from
1)Chail Military School
2)National Defence Academy
3)National Cadet Corps
4)Indian Military Academy,
4)Rashtriya
5)Indian Military College
and family members of armed forces officers.
The expeditions are also meant to show to the international audience that Indian troops hold "almost all dominating heights" on the important Saltoro Ridge and to show that Pakistani troops are not within 15 miles (24 km) of the 43.5-mile (70 km) Siachen Glacier.
Ignoring protests from Pakistan, India maintains that it does not need anyone's approval to send trekkers to Siachen, in what it says is essentially its own territory.
In addition, the Indian Army's Army Mountaineering Institute (AMI) functions out of the region.
PRESENT SCENARIO: International Support To India
My Assessment
Official figures for maintaining a force of about 3000 men and about 150 outposts are put at ~$300 and ~$200 million for India and Pakistan respectively.
$200 million for a useless barren region mean a lot for a country like Pakistan at its present state.
Pakistan's biggest ally America
The Chief of Staff of the US Army, General George Caseyon in a clear support to Indian stand on Siachen, on October 17, 2008 visited the Siachen Glacier along with Indian Army Chief, General Deepak Kapoor.
Despite of such a formidable position and importance of Siachen India is willing to vacate the heights in favour of peace and friendship with its neighbours.
Recenlty 12th round of talks, after a gap of 3 years since 2008 (Thanks to 26/11 which ISI is alleged to have carried out) with Pakistan failed to 'Break Ice over Siachen'. This was mainly due to unclear and doubtful intentions of Pakistan. With Pakistan dragging its feet on providing clear-cut guarantees for authentication of the 110-km Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL) in the Saltoro Ridge-Siachen region, no significant breakthrough is on the cards in the festering bilateral dispute.
Pakistan has been dilly-dallying on the matter, and in the past has demanded that the pre-1972 troop positions be recognised since it feels India violated'' the Simla Agreement by occupying the heights in 1984. This is despite the fact that Pakistan itself wanted to takeover Siachen but failed to do so due to their own incompetence.
Both sides have long accepted the need to demilitarize the glacial heights, with soldiers deployed at heights ranging from 16,000 to 22,000 feet in extreme weather and terrain.
India has told Pakistan that it is flexible on the methodology to be adopted for verification of the proposed demilitarized zone but would insist on some map coordinates, obtained through aerial or satellite imagery, to show the relative positions on the ground".
India is in no hurry to vacate its posts. The Indian Army no longer bleeds heavily as it used to in the earlier years after it pre -empted Pakistan's Operation Ababeel'' to occupy the heights in April 1984 by just a day with its own Operation Meghdoot''.
However Pakistan owing to its present economic, security conditions and its international political relations cannot afford to spend time and money over Siachen.
All India want is an official statement from Pakistan that it will not try to take over Siachen once India steps down.
