Click to play videoNew Delhi: The world's highest and coldest battlefield is now within the reach of the aam admi.
It won't quite be a ringside view to the conflict, which has persisted for 23 years. But it's the first opportunity for a nine-to-five Indian commoner to set foot in the forbidden conflict zone.
The group of 23 adventure enthusiasts will begin their all-expenses-paid trek from the Siachen Base Camp to Kumar Post from October 1. But the move has Pakistan fuming.
“We do not consider Siachen as a part of India. It does not give India to start national expeditions there because it may give an impression that Siachen is an integral part of India,” says Pakistan’s Deputy Defence Minister, Ali Asjad Malhi.
But India is taking its chances and its superior military position and the four-year-long ceasefire giving it the confidence to go ahead with its agenda to de-stress conflict on the glacier.
Throwing up Siachen for adventure tourism enables India to take a step towards normalising the glacier by diluting the military character of the Indian presence there. But is there is a cost to this? Pakistan, clearly, is unhappy. And there are those who believe that the purpose would have been better served had Islamabad been taken on board.
But keen observers on the Indian side feel that the Pakistani protest has a hint of duplicity. Islamabad regularly allows mountaineering expeditions on its side of the disputed territory along the Baltoro region
“I want to Siachen glacier equal to Baltoro glacier,” says Siachen Pioneer, Col Narendra Kumar.
In 1996, Pakistan threatened to shell an American expedition to Siachen. One of the reasons it may be hesitant for a Siachen glasnost is that it would expose the bluff that Pakistan is occupying a part of the glacier.
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