India, Pakistan Hold Talks On Pullout From World's Highest Battlefield

Agence France Presse

by Parul Gupta

Tue May 23, 12:02 PM ET

Top officials from nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan launched two days of talks on troop withdrawal from a Himalayan glacier in disputed Kashmir, the defence ministry said.

"The talks on Siachen glacier started this morning. They are likely to go on through the day," an Indian defence ministry official said.

Pakistan's defence secretary Tariq Waseem Ghazi, who led his country's delegation, called on Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee at the end of the first round Tuesday.

"We are continuing with the discussions ... we are looking at how we can advance further (with our objective)," Mukherjee told the English news channel Times Now after his meeting with Ghazi.

Military experts estimate that 7,000 Indian troops and 4,000 Pakistani soldiers are deployed on the glacier, known as the world's highest battlefield, where icy temperatures, altitude and accidents claim more lives than combat.

Analysts say the 6,300-metre (20,700-foot) Siachen is of little strategic value but India is concerned that Pakistan might send in its troops to occupy a high ridge area if it withdraws.

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

Analysts said the Kargil episode had made India wary of pulling out troops in the region.

"If you look at history, after what Pakistan did in Kargil, nothing concrete is expected from the talks," said Wilson John, senior fellow at the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation.

India has proposed both sides formally note down the positions they hold at present before troops are withdrawn from the glacier, but New Delhi says Islamabad is hesitant about doing so, thus stalling the agreement.

Defence minister Mukherjee last week ruled out "any withdrawal of troops from Siachen so long as talks going on with Pakistan on the issue do not yield any results."

Experts said India was also unlikely to agree to any pullout before a roundtable Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is seeking to hold with Kashmiri separatists from Wednesday was over.

Ahead of the meetings in Srinagar, a series of attacks Sunday and Monday killed eight people and wounded more than 50.

"India is very wary of jumping the gun. The situation in Kashmir is not very good after the fresh attacks," John said.

But Pakistan's Ghazi told reporters after arriving in New Delhi on Monday that he was optimistic.

"We have come here with an open, positive frame of mind," he said. "We are ready to discuss all possibilities ... we are open to all proposals."

He said his delegation remained "hopeful of an outcome" and Dutt said the meetings would take place in "a friendly environment."

Indian military negotiators say some headway has been made in previous rounds of talks to fix an agreed ceasefire line on the glacier.

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf this year urged India to withdraw troops from three Kashmiri cities and Siachen as a demilitarisation gesture.

The two sides will also hold another round of two-day talks from Thursday to demarcate Sir Creek -- a narrow strip of marshland that separates India's western border from Pakistan.

The bitter rivals have fought three wars since their 1947 independence from Britain, two of them over Kashmir, but have engaged in a slow-moving peace process since January 2004.

Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse.