Credit: Asia Times
By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE – An avalanche near the Siachen Glacier, which buried around 140 Pakistani soldiers and civilian contractors a fortnight ago, has triggered debate in India and Pakistan over the huge costs of keeping troops in a stand-off at its icy heights.
Pakistan’s army chief General Ashfaq Kiani is leading calls in Pakistan for the glacier’s demilitarization. Kiani called for resolution of the India-Pakistan conflict over the glacier After visiting the disaster site at Gayari to oversee rescue operations. “How it is done is to be decided by the military and civil leaderships” of the two countries, he said.
First time some COAS of Pak Army has opined which makes sense. I hppened to serve in that area. It looks funny how India and Pakistan wasting precious resources which direly needed elswhere. One should pray the incident opens the eyes on both sides and both countries can declare it as demilitarized area.