Pak sees no fun in tour to Siachen

NEW DELHI: Siachen is back in news. Pakistan on Monday made its opposition known to India’s plans to throw open the glacier for tourists — its contention is the move would affect the ongoing peace process. But the protestation is unlikely to bring about any change in the Centre’s plan to send trekkers to Siachen.

India’s deputy high commissioner to Pakistan, Manpreet Vohra, was summoned by the Pakistan foreign office, which lodged its protest and handed over a demarche stating that Siachen is a disputed region and Pakistan was opposed to the plan to allow tourists into the area.

Sources, however, said the trekkers are part of an Indian delegation and are going into Indian territory. At the Pakistan foreign office, Mr Vohra reiterated India’s stand that Jammu and Kashmir is an inalienable part of India.

The protest comes even as dates were announced on Monday for confidence-building measures (CBMs) meetings between India and Pakistan. New Delhi claimed that the dates had been confirmed by Islamabad. Both the sides have agreed to hold meetings on conventional confidence-building measures on October 18 and nuclear CBMs the day after. Meanwhile, Pakistan has agreed to India’s proposal to hold the second round of Indo-Pak joint anti-terrorism mechanism on October 22.

Nevertheless, Pakistan foreign office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam was quoted as saying that the plan would imperil the peace process and the ongoing CBMs between the two countries. “It’s like turning the whole (peace) process on its head,” she said. “The area (Siachen) remains a conflict zone and the reported move by India to open this for tourism could aggravate the situation with serious consequences that vitiate the atmosphere for the ongoing peace process.”

The government has decided to allow trekking expedition to the glacier to promote tourism and the Army had announced last week that the first group of trekkers would leave for Siachen later this month.

The Army has already set up a camp to provide information about sight-seeing and adventure spots to the visitors. India and Pakistan have been engaged in talks about converting Siachen into a peace zone, but that has been stuck over the issue of authentication of present troops positions. India believes that the first step in the process of demilitarisation of the glacier is authentication of positions. But Pakistan is yet to accept the authentication put forward by India.

The Army has been particularly vocal about pulling out troops from the glacier without enough safeguards in place and before reaching an agreement on delineation of the present Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL).