Pakistan pitches for ‘mutual withdrawal’ in Siachen

With 10 Indian soldiers perishing in the avalanche on the Siachen glacier, Pakistan on Thursday made a fresh reiteration that both countries should “mutually agree to withdraw from Siachen”, adding that the issue “be treated in an urgent manner between our two countries” to ensure that more lives are not lost on both sides on account of harsh weather conditions. After an avalanche near the Siachen glacier killed 130 Pakistani soldiers in 2012, Pakistan had requested India for withdrawal of troops of both countries from the Siachen region.

But despite the deaths of hundreds of Indian soldiers over the past three decades and the mounting human cost of holding on to the Siachen glacier — the world’s highest battlefield where temperatures plummet to minus 50° Celsius — India has been maintaining that it would not vacate the the Siachen glacier unless Pakistan agrees to authentication of the position of ground troops in the region and gives iron-clad guarantees that its troops will not occupy positions vacated by Indian troops. On Thursday, Pakistan high commissioner Abdul Basit said, “Ten Indian soldiers were killed due to the harsh weather conditions. These tragedies only reinforce the need to resolve this issue urgently, through peaceful means, through dialogue. You would recall that our PM in his address to the UNGA last year had made a specific proposal that both Paki-stan and India mutually agree to withdraw from Siachen. So we strongly feel that to ensure that more lives are not lost due to the harsh conditions at Siachen, we sincerely hope that the issue of Siachen would be treated in an urgent manner between our two countries. And we would be able to resolve this problem by peaceful means.”

The Indian government in 2012 had gone by the Army’s advice in deciding to stick to the conventional Indian position that before any demilitarisation of Siachen, Pakistan should agree to full demarcation of the ground position of troops on the glacier. The decision —taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security by the UPA-2 government in 2012 — was reiterated by India at the defence secretary talks between the two countries in Islamabad that year. Pakistan has so far resisted the idea of demarcation of current ground positions on both sides. Indian defence experts feel Pakistan is reluctant so that it (Pakistan) can exercise the option of occupying posts in case they are vacated by the Indian Army as part of any settlement.

Pakistan’s game plan so far has been to extend any border demarcation in the north-west direction to the Karakoram pass. India, on the other hand, wants extension of any mutually agreed upon border demarcation straight up north from the NJ 9842 position along the ridgelines. The Indian position is that the line runs towards the glaciers along the watersheds formed by the Saltoro range as per the internationally accepted principle of border delineation.

Soon after taking over in 2014, the Modi government had informed Parliament that 50 Indian Army soldiers had died at the Siachen glacier in just the past three years (2011 to July 2014) due to landslides, floods, avalanches, and “environmental/climatic” conditions.