India's Pointless War that Costs 50 Million Per Day


Bangalore: The most pointless war has been on for the past 28 years. The deadly avalanche that struck the battalion headquarters of Pakistan Army's Northern Light Infantry recently on the Siachen Glacier has brought to light the human and economic cost of sustaining a two-decade long conflict for the climatically uninviting area.  With temperatures as low as -60 C, vicious winds and altitude sickness, the region is just east of the world's second-highest peak, K-2.

Maintaining a military presence on remote Siachen exerts a grave financial toll. Pakistan spends $60 million a year on Siachen and India about $200-$300 million, the equivalent of Rs50 million per day every day of the year. In the two countries where millions live below the poverty line, that is a lot of money to defend a frozen, uninhabitable patch of mountain.

At the request of the government of Pakistan the U.S. has sent a team for search and rescue operation in Siachen where nearly 150 Pakistani soldiers were buried after being hit by an avalanche on Saturday.

The Siachen Glacier has engulfed over 8,000 Indian and Pakistani soldiers between April 1984 and April 2012. It is called one of world's most pointless military deployments, where two poverty-wracked nations are engaged in a costly standoff over an uninhabitable patch of mountain and ice.