While a war has gone on at the world’s highest battlefield for 22 years almost to date, it has not changed the basic military position of India and Pakistan. In fact, Pakistan’s repeated attempts to dislodge the Indian Army from its posts on the Saltoro Ridge have failed time and again.

The only bilateral agreement affecting the area is the 1949 Karachi Agreement, according to which the ceasefire line should have proceeded “northward” from the now famous point NJ 9842.

Since the 1972 Simla Agreement did not say anything about its extension beyond this point, Karachi Agreement of 1949 is the only valid basis to settle this conflict.

India has made no attempt to move down westward from the peaks of the Saltoro Ridge that it has been holding since April 1984. But Pakistan Army launched a massive attack in September 1987 and failed, suffering heavy casualty.

This has remained a sore point with Pakistani Army leadership since, especially after General Zia ul-Haq denied permission to take the ridge (and Siachen glaciers to its east) with a strategy of indirect approach—the kind put into action by General Pervez Musharraf in Kargil in the summer of 1999.

Attempts were made after 1987 to arrive at a negotiated solution to the “Siachen conflict” and talks between Islamabad and New Delhi commenced by 1989. There is widespread understanding that the two countries were very close to an agreement by 1993 but did not move forward to close it.

A major roadblock in the way of a durable solution is that there is no guarantee that the solution will not become a problem one day.

... contd.