Pakistan News And Discussion-12

[Naresh]

[center]<b><span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>Second Editorial : Don’t let Siachen ‘tourism’ distract you!</span></b>[/center]

The Foreign Office in Islamabad was in high dudgeon Monday upon hearing that India was soon to open the Siachen Glacier it had occupied in 1984 for “tourism”. It called in the Indian deputy high commissioner and ticked him off on “an Indian plan to open the Siachen Glacier to tourists”. What triggered the Islamabad anger was a newspaper report that up to 20 trekkers were about to be taken to the glacier next week and would stick around there for over 20 days.

Siachen is where troops have been dying of frostbite and hypothermia and other related psychological diseases. Battle casualties over the years have been negligible, forcing the world to rebuke the two countries fighting over a piece of territory of no practical use unless the two wish to continue eying each other as potential victims of war that can go nuclear. <b><span style='color:red'>Siachen has been a kind of rebuke to the Pakistan army which launched its infamous Kargil Operation in part to offset the “advantage” gained by India in 1984. Ironically, Pakistan’s claim to Siachen was based on the mountaineering expedition which went to the glacier from Pakistan.</span></b> The claim made no difference to the status of the high-altitude territory which remains a no-man’s land. While it is correct to protest India’s latest “report” about “tourism”, there is no need to get heated up about the issue or to allow it to break the momentum of the Indo-Pak peace talks.

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