Agence France-Presse,
New Delhi (AFP): India said Saturday it will not agree on the withdrawal of troops from a glacier in disputed Kashmir until Islamabad reveals its positions there, the Press Trust of India reported. Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have held many rounds of talks on the withdrawal of troops from the 6,300 metre (20,800-feet) high Siachen glacier without narrowing their differences.
“We have to keep the history in mind. Both sides will have to agree on the actual ground position,” India's Defence Minister A.K. Anthony told reporters following his first visit to the Siachen region.
The Indian army, which has occupied most of the high-altitude battlefield since 1987, wants “iron-clad” evidence of existing troop positions to dissuade Pakistan from moving its soldiers forward in the event of a pull-out.
Pakistan fears that setting out its positions would be tacit acceptance of India's claims to Siachen and the area as a whole.
“Pakistan will have to demarcate the actual ground position line — both on the ground as well as on the map — before any headway is made,” said the minister, who took the post last year.
“Our position from the beginning is very clear that before any forward movement is made, we must authenticate the actual ground position line.”
The last round of talks on troop withdrawal took place in Islamabad last month.
Experts say India has around 5,000 troops on the glacier while Pakistan has less than half that number on the frigid wasteland, where temperatures plummet to minus 50 degrees Celsius (minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit).
Kashmir — of which Siachen is a part — is divided between Pakistan and India and is claimed by both in full. It has caused two of the three wars between the neighbours since their independence in 1947 from Britain.
Both sides also fought a fierce skirmish on Siachen in 1987. Analysts say the value of the glacier is mostly symbolic rather than strategic.
