India readies roadmap to demilitarise Siachen

The Indian army said yesterday it has prepared a roadmap for the withdrawal of troops from the world's highest battlefield, the Siachen Glacier, which overlooks Pakistan and China.

"We have given our viewpoint to the government on converting the Saltoro ridge and the glacier into a demilitarised zone," army chief general J.J. Singh said, declining to give further details.

Singh's statement came after South Asian rivals India and Pakistan announced late last month they would continue talks about their standoff on the glacier, but reported no substantive progress following two days of discussions.

The Saltoro ridge wedged between Pakistan-held Kashmir and China's militerised Aksai Chin has been a bone of contention between India and Pakistan since 1984 when Indian troops occupied its punishing heights.

During a visit to Siachen earlier this month, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called for the 6,300-metre (21,000-foot) glacier be turned into a "zone of peace" between India and Pakistan.

The talks between India and Pakistan on demilitarising the glacier are part of a wider peace process between the neighbours who have fought three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947 -- two of them over divided Kashmir.

The nuclear-armed rivals agreed to a ceasefire in November 2003 along the Siachen front and the rest of their borders.

Thousands of Pakistani and Indian soldiers are eyeball-to-eyeball atop the glacier. But more troops have died from the icy temperatures, altitude and accidents than from enemy fire.

Analysts say Siachen is of little strategic value but India is concerned that Pakistan might send in its troops to occupy the ridge area if it withdraws.

In 1999, Pakistan-backed invaders occupied the icy heights of Kargil, triggering fighting between India and Pakistan that cost hundreds of lives and brought the two rivals close to war.

Meanwhile, Indian Kashmir's main rebel group yesterday rejected calls for a ceasefire in the troubled Himalayan region and instead told militants to prepare for "holy war".

Syed Salahuddin, supreme commander of Hizbul Mujahedin, also dismissed the ongoing peace process between South Asian rivals India and Pakistan, which centres on the fate of Kashmir, as "a waste of time."