War is the only game where both parties loose in real time & winners are decided in history books
- Anonymous
In one of the episodes of “The Simpsons”(American animated sitcom of 90’s), a military officer character invoice that “The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea, They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall mountain."Though it appeared as joke, but the latter half of that statement would soon prove eerily prescient when India and Pakistan fought over Kashmir's Siachen glacier -- a strategically irrelevant, inhospitable ice field sitting over 18,000 feet above sea level. On Dec 2012, It was yet another bad news for Indian army, death of 10 odd soldiers due to snow avalanche in this place saddened me.
The origins of the ice war date back to 1947, after India and Pakistan fought over possession of Kashmir, a former kingdom coveted by both countries During partition of British India, princely states inside india were asked by Mountbatten to chosen between either India or Pakistan. Certain princely states joined voluntarily, few states made their decision based on referendum results. Mountbatten got visibly agitated after hearing words of Kashmir ruler “Hari singh” that he want to remain independent irrespective of India or Pakistan. Mountbatten warned him that, his callous decision will make India and Pakistan as permanent foes. On Oct 24 1947, with hasten decision of Pakistan, Marauding tribal pathans entered this beautiful state with a motto to make it permanently accessed with Pakistan. King with no option, signed agreement with India without considering his state subjects will. After first Indo-Pak war in 1947- 48, this beautiful state is divided along LoC into two.
70km long siachen glacier lies north east of point NJ9842 , where Line of Control between India and Pakistan ends. It is a highly inhospitable area with statistics showing that temperatures can even fall below -55C. Before 1960, nobody of either side debated ownership of this inhabitable ice field. In 1967, U.S defense maps showed glacier region was lying in Pakistan. Numerous governmental & private cartographers ,atlas producers followed suit, indicating same information. Even in historical simla agreement, there were no words on the siachen glacier.A statement that “after end of LoC ie NJ9842, there exists a inhospitable glacier” was only present in simla agreement.
In 1970’s When several mountaineers start asking permission from Pakistan government for mountaineering expedition in peaks near siachen glacier, Indian government got aware and protested the U.S maps. After getting alarmed with sequence of events, Colonel Narendra "Bull" Kumar, then commanding officer of the Indian Army started an Army expedition to the Siachen area in 1977. With 4 years of continuous voyage, colonel bull returned with lot of strategic information. Bull's secret trek was spotted by Pakistan. On patrol, some Pakistani soldiers found a crumpled packet of "Gold Flake" cigarettes, an Indian brand and their suspicions were raised.After knowing this incident, army headquarters in Rawalpindi, Pakistani generals decided to capture the glacier as felt they had better stake to claim ownership of Siachen. Pakistan then committed a historical blunder, that cost them heavily in the future events. Pakistan army ordered Arctic-weather gear from a London outfitters with whom Indians also ordered before.
With intelligence information of possible Pakistan operation, India launched Operation Meghdoot(Named for the divine cloud messenger, Meghaduta, from the Sanskrit play by Kalidasa), on 13 April 1984, 4 days before planned Pakistan operation. For this operation, Indian army’s challenge was lofty hitherto unscaled peaks. Thanks to IAF’s Il-76, An-12 and An-32 military planes, Indian army airlifted troops to strategic locations in high altitudes within few hours and days. When the Pakistanis hiked up to the glacier, they found that a 300-man Indian battalion was already there, dug into the highest mountaintops.
Pakistan’s attempts to reclaim mountain positions were taught to be surreal acts of heroism and self-sacrifice. In April 1989, for example, the Pakistanis decided to try to dislodge an Indian squad from a saddle between two peaks known as the Chumik Pass before reinforcements arrived. First, a platoon of Pakistanis, roped together, tried scaling a 600-m cliff to reach the Indian post, but they were wiped out by an avalanche. Time was running out; Indian reinforcements were approaching. So a Pakistani lieutenant, Naveed Khan Qureshi, 27, with no mountain-warfare training, volunteered for a crazy mission. The plan was for Qureshi to be dangled from a tiny helicopter by a rope and then dropped on top of the peak, above the Indians. Slapped by high winds, the helicopter stalled and went into a dive. Qureshi was still underneath it, swinging to and fro.,going to get caught in the tail rotor blades. Pilot pulled the chopper out of its stall and headed for a lower ridge. Qureshi was cut loose—and fell straight into a crevasse. Miraculously, he survived, but was trapped there until a second soldier was airlifted in. The two men were stranded in a blizzard for two days until the weather cleared long enough for Sehgal to land four more troops and supplies. Trouble was, their position was 150 m below the Indian outpost instead of above it. Lashed together by ropes, the six men advanced up the mountain, and eventually overran the Indians' bunker. From that vantage point, the Pakistanis began to pound a lower Indian base on the glacier with mortars and rockets. A month later, the two countries realized the madness of trying to slug it out, and agreed to pacify. Another 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 .This time Pakistan again lost another one post thanks to Naib Subedar Bana Singh, who in a daring daylight raid, assaulted and captured a Pakistani post atop a 22,000 foot (6,700 m) peak, now named after his name bana post.
Today, an icy stalemate prevails. According to current position Indian Army control the heights, but due to inaccessible terrain, Indians have to bring in everything using helicopters and snowmobiles. On western side, Pakistan has mobility with roads to transfer men and goods supplies.
Even after 2003 ceasefire between India-Pak , more soldiers were killed in avalanches than by gunfire. With improvements in military equipment, Siachen is still an awful place to wage a war. The winds were so fierce that leave alone fight, you can't breathe, you can't see, you can't talk-you only have a prayer on your lip. It would take 50 whistles of pressure cooker before a leg of chicken could be cooked. To keep warm, body requires twice the normal amount of calories daily. For the troops guarding the heights, the mountains remain unforgiving and death is a constant companion.Way back in 2005, an avalanche buried part of the Indian post on the ridge, freezing a junior commissioned officer to death. The bad weather prevented rescuers from bringing his body down for four days. Around the same time, a captain had to have his legs and a hand amputated after he suffered from severe frostbite. Both countries refuse to disclose their casualties in the 28 years that they have been fighting up here, but some military analysts put the combined death toll at anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 lives.
To demilitarize the glacier, India-Pakistan conducted many rounds of talks, almost everything ended in a failure.Trust-deficit a basic reason for all the failures. Indian army never ready to trust Pakistan after kargil betrayal. Neither nation wants to be the first to pull its troops off the ice for fear that the other would rush in. Due to advent in technology, Indian army defends that they can safely stay in inhospitable conditions, with no casualties reported due to severe cold conditions in last few years. After deadly 2012 siachen avalanche killing 150 soldiers, Pakistan army repeatedly calls for demilitarization
Friendly banter also exists between the soldiers of both nations who in some areas was just 200 yards away.During Diwali and EID, both exchange the greetings. Every other day some Indian soldiers would wave out to his Pakistani counterpart on a ridge and once even got a request to send down a box of paan. On one occasion, Indian soldiers offered Pakistani soldier the chance to use their satellite phone to call home
Until India and Pakistan can find a way to trust each other, such a white death threatens the lives of young Indians and Pakistanis locked in a pointless war on the roof of the world. The tin-roofed arrival hall at Indian Base Camp has an old Ladakhi saying
"The land is so barren and the passes so high that only the best of friends and the fiercest of enemies would want to visit us."
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