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Post-Kargil, holding the glacier is costlier

Well before the crack of dawn, Indian soldiers are out of their sleeping bags in the bone-chilling cold of this bleak battlefield.

This is the time when the 102 Infantry Brigade Commander Ashok Duggal takes his popular cold water bath at the brigade headquarters in Partappur.

The temperature is a few degrees below the freezing point, but in the rarefied atmosphere of the world's highest battlefield, those guarding the nation's frontiers are all geared up to meet any challenge.

The enemy is at relatively close range and despite a lull in the fighting in the recent past there is no let up in the vigil in these snowy wastelands, arguably one of the most crucial sectors in the defence of Jammu and Kashmir.

It has been like this for the past 15 years, ever since India occupied the 76-km glacier in 1984 in an effort to stop the Pakistanis from moving east and ''shaking hands'' with the Chinese.

Time, like the frozen Nubra river close to the base here, has stood still all these years with both sides to the conflict holding on to their respective positions tenaciously.

''There has been no artillery firing on the Line of Control or the Actual Ground Position Line since the cease-fire announced in Kashmir. But we are in full operational preparedness all the time,'' said Maj Gen Sheru Thapliyal, who commands the 3rd Infantry Division, while talking to reporters this past weekend.

His abstinence from the sartorial accoutrements in this extreme weather outpost of the country, and Brig Duggal's cold water bath, speak of the problems inherent in maintaining troop morale and of the doggedness of the military commanders despite the odds here.

The Pakistanis have been equally resolute in their efforts to wrest the Indian positions and have carried out a number of raids on forward Indian posts, the last one on the Bilafond La post in April last year.

Reflecting the thinking there, current military ruler and the then army chief, General Pervez Musharraf, told reporters in Islamabad soon after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Lahore peace trip in 1999 that there was no question of withdrawing his troops from Siachen.

''Kashmir and Siachen cannot be separated. Both are important for us,'' he had said.

He followed it up two months later with an assault on the strategically important Srinagar-Leh highway in the Kargil and Drass sub-sectors.

Two army divisions have since been moved to Leh, thereby increasing the cost of the army operations.

''The average daily cost of our operations here is now Rs 40 million,'' said Maj Atul Kumar, who feeds the supply lines from Partappur.

There has also been modernisation of the army's health and medical facilities in the region. ''As much as Rs 1.28 billion have been spent on the upgradation of field medical set ups and the hospital here,'' Lt Col (Dr) V K Popli of the 328 Field Brigade said, while pointing out that better medical facilities were a great morale booster for the soldiers.

Local army commanders maintain that the army is fully prepared to give a ''bloody nose'' to any future intrusion efforts by Pakistan.

''What happened (in Kargil) will not happen again...we have taken a lot of measures. This much I can assure you,'' Brig Duggal told reporters.

Brig Duggal said the number of weather related casualties had dropped substantially. Gen Thapliyal, the GoC, said the soldiers were getting better boots and protective clothing.

Pre-fabricated huts were replacing the tin sheds where soldiers lived and different posts were now linked by INMAR communication sets, he said.

The army has also launched an operation to ''win the hearts and minds'' of the local people, especially in the Muslim-dominated Turtuk-Tyakshi areas, wrested from Pakistan in the 1971 war.

Hopes for a peaceful settlement in Jammu and Kashmir have surged following the Centre's ceasefire initiative and the artillery and mortar guns have fallen silent.

''There has been no exchange of fire after the ceasefire. The last incident was on December 3 when the Pakistanis used small arms and rockets on a post in central Glacier area,'' Brig Duggal said.

Gen Thapliyal stressed that the intensity of firing has reduced after the ceasefire. But he was of the opinion that there had been no de-induction of Pakistani troops in the Siachen sector.

Asked whether Pakistan had withdrawn troops from the forward posts in his area of operation, he said: ''Not in my sector.''

Thus the army's need for ''full operational readiness'' and Brigadier Duggal's cold water bath.

''The cold is here,'' Brigadier Duggal said pointing to his head. ''It is all psychological.''

UNI

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