New Delhi (NVI): Fretting and fuming over India’s decision to start tourism in Siachen, Pakistan yesterday claimed that the Glacier was a “disputed territory” and as such cannot be opened for tourists even as New Delhi has stepped up efforts to make it fully ready for visitors soon.
At a weekly press briefing in Islamabad yesterday, Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesperson Muhammad Faisal claimed that Siachen was forcibly occupied by India in 1984.
“Siachen Glacier was a disputed territory, which India could not open for tourism. India has made attempts to occupy the territory of Siachen. The disputed land cannot be opened for tourists,” he said, adding that India had not formally conveyed its decision on Siachen to Pakistan.
India on October 21 announced that the Siachen Glacier area will be open for tourists, about 35 years after the world’s highest battlefield located in Ladakh was closed for civilians.
Meanwhile, the government has stepped up its efforts to make the Siachen Glacier fully ready for visitors. Recently, a group of tour operators from Leh visited the once-forbidden area from November 14 to 16 on a familiarization trip to explore how tourists could be taken there. They went to the Siachen Base Camp, which is situated at about 18,000 ft, under the banner of All Ladakh Tour Operator Association (ALTOA).
As part of efforts to boost tourism in Ladakh, the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had made the announcement during his visit to Ladakh for inaugurating a strategic bridge on Shyok River.
The Siachen Glacier area in the Karakoram mountains used to be a non-militarised zone till 1984, before India rushed its Army to the region under ‘Operation Meghdoot’ to pre-empt a bid by Pakistan to deploy its armed forces there.
Prior to the ‘Operation Meghdoot’, India used to allow mountaineering expeditions to the region where the border is not properly defined under the Karachi Agreement of 1949.
In 2005, when the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Siachen, he had pitched for converting Siachen into a “mountain of peace”.
–ps/nad
