Celebrating 20 years of victory on the Saltoro Ridge

Jagan
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Re: Celebrating 20 years of victory on the Saltoro Ridge

Post by Jagan »

Arun_S wrote:
Jagan wrote:We hve a guy on this..give it two months, you will find a detailed history here...
My bad. I commit to complete the feature on 114 HU in under 6 weeks. I will complete tax in a week and get to the job.


Six weeks it is! Articles received as promised.

The main story of this month is History of 114 Helicopter Unit "Siachen Pioneers" by Arun S, Our Space Section Webmaster.

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/History/Sqn/114.html

Arun has also done an exclusive Photo feature on Siachen Pioneers
http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Image ... index.html

Enjoy
Arun_S
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Post by Arun_S »

Pervez breaks Siachen ice, will leave it alone

REUTERS[ SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2004 10:37:10 PM ]

Pakistani foreign ministry officials in Islamabad said that they could not confirm the report.

The two countries have discussed the Siachen dispute many times but India has been reluctant to vacate the peaks fearing that Pakistani troops at lower ground would move up and occupy the glacier.

The News also said that the two leaders had agreed to restore a hotline set up between the Pakistani President and Indian Prime Minister 11 years ago but never used.

The only regularly used hotline between the nuclear-armed rivals is between senior military officials.

Analysts said that the meeting between Musharraf and Singh had revitalised a flagging peace process under which the two countries had held a series of talks at foreign minister and senior official level this year aimed at building confidence.

Pakistan and India said that they wanted to resolve all their disputes, including the core issue of Kashmir, cause of two of their three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.


In Jammu and Kashmir, an alliance of political separatist groups said that it would only consider resuming peace talks with the Indian government after getting a formal invitation.

The comments came a day after Home Minister Shivraj Patil said that the government would not attach conditions to dialogue on the region. But that offer was met with scepticism.

"Earlier also, they announced that they would hold unconditional talks with us but later they backed out," said Maulana Abbas Ansari, an official of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, an alliance of two dozen Kashmiri separatist groups.

"We'll wait for the formal invitation and discuss it," he said.

The talks, the first since the insurgency began, were launched this year by the previous government in New Delhi.

But the dialogue appeared to have broken down last month after the UPA government, which took power in May, insisted talks be held within the constitution, which says Kashmir is an integral part of India.

That position is not acceptable to the Hurriyat, which is seeking independence for Kashmir or merger with Pakistan.

Earlier, Patil had said in an interview that an invitation would be sent to Hurriyat leaders when he visited Kashmir next month.
Arun_S
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Post by Arun_S »

Musharraf deal on J&K makes Pak cheerful

New Delhi, Sept. 26: Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has described his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a major breakthrough. Referring to the joint statement committing both sides to a negotiated settlement of Jammu and Kashmir, he has in an interview to Pakistan Television described Singh as a “sincere person” and the interaction as part of an “epoch-making day.”

The General’s euphoria has been shared by the Pakistan media as well as the government. The News has reported that a deal on Siachen is now in the making, with Mus-harraf’s assurance that he will not occupy the heights if these are vacated by Indian troops, which is understood to have evoked a positive response from the Indian Prime Minister.

The newspaper has quoted reliable sources as saying that modalities for this would be worked out through the proper channels. It has further said that a high-level delegation of Pakistani political leaders, led by a federal minister, will visit India to meet leaders of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference.

The News claimed that Singh did not even in passing make any references to India’s concerns about cross-border infiltration, although that is totally contrary to what the Prime Minister himself told reporters at a press conference after the meeting. The report further said that the two leaders agreed that normalisation of relations was not possible without the peaceful solution of the Kashmir issue. Singh has been quoted as saying at his press conference in New York that India was sincere about finding solutions that would put the unhappy past behind.

The Pakistan government and the media across the board have been euphoric about the New York meeting. Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Masood Khan said the meeting had given a new direction to the composite dialogue process. Speaking to the Associated Press, he said that the two leaders had rekindled the hope for a negotiated settlement of the Kashmir dispute and thus given a fresh lifeline to the whole dialogue process.

Pakistan’s Information and Broadcasting Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, who was part of Musharraf’s official delegation to the US and is a known critic of Indian policies on Kashmir, has also expressed complete satisfaction over the results of the meeting. The Dawn newspaper has noted, with optimism, that Pakistan has stopped demanding a settlement on the basis of the United Nations resolutions which are now outdated and cannot be implemented to the advantage of Pakistan and Kashmiris.

Sections of the Indian media, briefed by official sources, had failed to realise this reality and had instead claimed that the General’s decision to drop references to the UN resolutions was a compromise.

This newspaper had earlier noted that India on its part had stopped harping on its earlier refrain of Kashmir being an integral part of India and had shown the courage to recognise that Kashmir was a dispute between the two countries which has to be resolved.
svinayak
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Post by svinayak »

There was an article from the the-week.com magazine in this thread.
Where is it.
svinayak
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Post by svinayak »

She write that the Siachen Glacier dispute arises out of India’s occupation in 1982 of some high Himalayan peaks in an area of Jammu and Kashmir where the Line of Control was undefined. Pakistan followed suit, and their positions on the glacier have cost both armies more casualties from frostbite and altitude sickness than from hostilities. India and Pakistan came”tantalisingly close” to an agreed redeployment a decade ago. Since then, this dispute has been complicated by Pakistan’s incursion into nearby Kargil in 1999. In the most recent discussions, the main stumbling block has been Pakistan’s unwillingness to give any kind of formal recognition to the positions where Indian troops are now deployed.


http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.as ... 004_pg7_43
Anoop
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Post by Anoop »

Unfortunate title which does not really reflect the content:

India's senseless battle in Siachen
The latest round of talks between the Indian and Pakistani defence secretaries was held on August 6, 2004. According to the joint statement issued at the end of the talks, the two sides agreed to “continue their discussions with a view to resolving the Siachen issue in a peaceful manner”. Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced at the Siachen Base Camp during a visit on August 13, 2004 that “military personnel (of the two countries) will meet to discuss the demilitarisation exercise and report back to their respective governments.


Referring to the issue of demarcation of the Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL), he said that “Delineation should first be done on the ground and then it should be reflected on the map so that any violation by either side could be proven.”

The greatest stumbling block to demilitarisation is Pakistan’s stubborn refusal to allow demarcation of the present positions on the ground and the map. From India’s point of view, that is the first step to eventual withdrawal of troops and demilitarisation.

Unless Pakistan reviews its rigid stand on delineation of the AGPL, the Siachen conflict will remain an intractable issue. Only then can the two armies graduate to pulling out their troops. The natural sequence for a final settlement will be a permanent ceasefire, demarcation of the AGPL on both ground and map, an implementable joint verification agreement, redeployment to mutually agreed positions and, finally, an agreement to resolve the dispute.
It's hard to believe that the PA will honor its committment of not occupying vacant posts, if only to relieve its frustration at not making any headway for the last 20 years.
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