Despite Pak protest, India plans civilian trek to Siachen

New Delhi, May 14 (PTI) Notwithstanding Pakistan's
vociferous protests earlier, India will organise a civilian
mountaineering and trekking expedition to the forbidding
Siachen Glacier for the fourth year in a row in
October-November this year.
"The Siachen trekking expedition this year is in its
planning stage and is likely to take place some time in
October-November," an Army officer involved in the planning of
the trek said here.
The expedition, which has now become an annual affair,
is meant to showcase to the global community that Indian
troops hold the Siachen glacial heights and Pakistan is
nowhere near the Glacier, regarded as the world's highest
battlefield.
Guns had boomed in the 78-km-long Glacier at an altitude
of 18,875 feet till November 25, 2004, when a formal ceasefire
agreement between India and Pakistan came into effect along
the 740-km Line of Control (LOC) and 110-km Actual Ground
Position Line (AGPL).
During this year's expedition, the Army plans to take
along 35 civilians including women, journalists, scientists
from the DRDO and other glacial studies institutes, and
mountaineers from among civilian enthusiasts as well as
military training establishments.
The participants would be trained in mountaineering,
skating and other such skills required to go through the
arduous month-long trek to the Glacier, the officer said.
They would also be visiting some of the Indian Army
positions on their way up the glacier and back.
The civilian Siachen expedition had run into a
controversy when it began in 2007 after Pakistan lodged a
strong protest, calling it "incongruous" to ongoing peace
efforts between the two countries.
Though the Army halted the trip immediately after the
protest that year, it went ahead with the trekking expedition
after a go-ahead was given by the UPA government later.
Every year since then, India continued with its Siachen
expedition of civilians and mountaineering enthusiasts, even
as Pakistan had voiced its concern.
Despite protests from Pakistan, India maintains it does
not need Islamabad's approval to send trekkers to Siachen,
which is essentially in Indian territory. PTI NCB
MRD


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