Can Siachen be An 'Ice Breaker' for India and Pakistan?


New Delhi:Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is taking a huge risk in trying to hype up public opinion, within Pakistan and on an international level, in favour of resolving the Siachen glacier problem with India.

The Siachen glacier suddenly made the news headlines earlier this month when Zardari came to India for one day to visit Ajmer Sharif and on the eve of the visit, an avalanche on the glacier killed more than one hundred Pakistani soldiers. It again hit the headlines the next day as one of the issues Zardari discussed with Singh when he hosted the Pakistani leader for lunch before his trip to Ajmer.

According to Pakistani sources, the sudden visit by Zardari soon after Pakistan granted the much awaited MFN status to India was to convince Singh that the Zardari government genuinely wants to improve relations with India. According to the sources, Zardari urged Singh that India should now reciprocate by taking a meaningful step to please the Pakistanis who really want their government to improve relations with their neighbour through trade and other exchanges. Zardari assured Singh that his talks in Pakistan could be turned into a historic visit if the two sides can sign an agreement on the Siachen Glacier. That, he said, would genuinely build tremendous goodwill for India among the Pakistani people as well as with the Army. What he did not say, but was obvious, was that this would also help Zardari win the next elections and improve his relations with the Army Chief.

But the problem is that India has too much to lose if it agrees to the Pakistani formula to resolve the dispute and it may even be accused of compromising India's security to accommodate Pakistan's compulsion.

Siachen glacier , in fact, is part of the UN sponsored LoC agreement between the two sides on Kashmir. And the roots of the conflict over Siachen lie in the non-demarcation on the western side on the LoC map beyond Grid Point NJ 9842. Since it was left unmarked and both sides had their own interpretation of the direction of the LoC beyond that grid point, it eventually led to a conflict.

The dispute started in 1984, when the Indian Army captured the two key northern passes in the Saltoro Range. Pakistan tried a few times to dislodge the Indian troops from their posts but found it too difficult because the heights it was holding were lower than the ones under India's control.

Source: IANS