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The Siachen battleground Withering heights

Desolate but beautiful, not God-forsaken, that is the first impression of the craggy, snow-lined mountains in the proximity of the Siachen Glacier. Can any place on Earth, however bleak, where there is both life and death, be without God? And what a life! In lonely synthetic-igloo eyries atop nameless mountain peaks, living in cold isolation for weeks at a stretch, survival against the vagaries and extremes of nature and the environment is all that those who have to endure this ask for, man-made modes of death and destruction are a secondary consideration. The sheer magnificence and enormity of the tremendous landscape puts one in a state of trance for any number of reasons. In awe of the stupendous beauty, in awe of the incessant danger, in awe of a seemingly impossible undertaking and above all, in awe of the men who have chosen to live, and maybe, die here. No words can adequately describe “God’s little acre” that comprises the highest mountains and glaciers in the world. No justice can be done in print to the courage and endurance of man in this environment.

Historical Background
The Karachi Agreement between India and Pakistan in 1948 after the Kashmir conflict demarcated the entire border in Jammu and Kashmir uptil point NJ 9842, 40 kms short of the border with China. The delimitation exercise envisaged an imaginary dividing line heading due north from NJ 9842 through Zingrulma to the Karakoram Pass. Siachen Glacier commands the eastern approaches to the major mountain peaks, K-2 (also known as Godwin Austin) and the Gasherbrums family. Various international mountaineering expeditions have climbed these high mountains for years without interference or protest from India. “Atlas of the World” by National Geographic Society, “Encyclopedia Brittanica”, “Historical Atlas of South Asia” and “Times Atlas of the World”, show Siachen well within Pakistani territory. While there are reasons to suggest that Indian sent military mountaineering expeditions near to the area in dispute in the late 70s, the first real hint of trouble came in 1983 when then Director General, Frontier Corps Northern Area (DG FCNA), Maj Gen (later Lt Gen Imtiazullah Warraich) was informed about a possible Indian incursion into Pakistan territory. He immediately ordered a patrol of 2nd Battalion Northern Light Infantry (NLI) to investigate. Adjutant 2 NLI Capt (now Lt Col) Javed, accompanied by Superintendent of Police Skardu who knew the area well, led a 40-man patrol beyond Goma till further passage was blocked by snow and crevices. The patrol came across traces of a patrol of Indian Ladakh Scouts (a cap badge, empty cigarette packs, Indian Rs ten note). DG FCNA personally satisfied himself by going upto Goma that this was just an incursion and there was no serious Indian encroachment. Many years earlier, Col Babar (later Maj Gen, presently Minister of Interior) had led 4 Army Aviation Squadron (including KKH flight) on a familiarisation flight from Skardu, some pilots in an Alouette-3 (among them Maj (later Maj Gen) HUK Niazi and this scribe), flying a short distance beyond village Demsome (then two/three huts only) before returning to Skardu. Zingrulma, the first post occupied by the Indians, where Pakistani skiers had been going till 1982, is now used by them as a major base. On April 13, 1984 Indians, experienced in mountain warfare since their drubbing at the hands of the Chinese in 1962, carried out “Operation Meghdoot”, air-lifting special mountain warfare units to occupy the two important passes in the Soltoro Range dominating the traditional approaches to the Siachen Glacier. In a belated reaction, then DG FCNA Maj Gen (later Lt Gen) Pir Dad moved forward troops ill-equipped for snowline warfare as late as May 1984 to occupy the important passes of Gyongla and Yarmala and prevent the Indians from further advancement. Convoy Saddle, on the approaches to K-2 and the Gasherbrums was occupied at 22000 feet, conceivably the highest regular post in the world. Thereafter except for occasional forays, the line has been frozen literally and figuratively. While the Indians have no real strategic objective, the Karakoram Highway linking Pakistan to China (KKH) being too far away, ours is mainly a necessary reaction to Indian encroachment i.e. defending the country’s sovereign territory. The military situation is fairly routine with artillery shells being lobbed against each other frequently and helicopters that stray into range being shot down. In 1990, when Lt Gen Imtiazullah Warraich (then in JCSC) led a military delegation (inclusive of then DGMO, Maj Gen (now COAS, Gen) Jahangir Karamet, their opposite Indian numbers were of the opinion that presence of (1) Pakistan skiers at Zingrulma as well as (2) traces of Pakistani approved mountain expeditions in the vicinity of Siachen had triggered the Indian reaction and thus the resulting dispute. This far-fetched apprehension has led to two armies now facing off each other in an ongoing war of attrition in the highest battlefield in the world.

The Battlefield
The sparsely populated Karakoram Range is one of the highest mountain systems in the world with at least four peaks exceeding 26000 ft, K-2 being the world’s second highest mountain after Everest. The Karakorams serve as a watershed for the basins of the Indus and Tarim Rivers, the range consisting of a group of parallel ranges with several spurs. Characterised by craggy peaks and steep slopes, the southern slope is generally long and very steep in contrast to the northern slope which is steep and short. This has allowed Pakistan to bring roads and tracks right upto most of the posts while the Indians on the northern (and reverse) side have to be supplied mostly by choppers, entailing expenditure five to six times that of ours, for the Indians almost Rs 5-6 crore daily. Cliffs and great accumulations of large, fallen rocks (taluses) occupy a vast area with traverse valleys looking like narrow, deep, steep ravines. The Karakorams are characterised by great glaciation, glaciers occurring on both slopes but more developed on the southern, more humid Pakistani side of slope. The snowline on the Pakistani southern side on the nebulous frontline begins at an altitude of 15400 feet and glaciers at 9440 feet, making it tougher for our posts, in contrast, on the northern slope the snowline is at a higher attitude of 19400 feet and glaciers at 11580 feet. The climate is for the most part semi-arid and sharply continental with the southern slopes exposed to the humidifying influence of the monsoons coming in from the Indian Ocean but the northern slopes are extremely dry at altitude of more than 16000 feet, precipitation takes a solid form (even as late as June) whereas in the lower and central part of the slopes, rain and snow is precipitated in small quantities. At altitudes of 18700 feet the average temperature during the warmest month is below zero whereas between 12800 feet and 18700 feet it remains around 10 C. In cold weather, ie. 9 months of the year, the wind chill factor takes the temperature 50 C below zero. Rarefied air, intensive solar radiation and great ranges of temperature, add to the vicissitudes of life. Mountain passes are situated at altitudes of 16000 feet, open only five/six months of the year. According to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, quote “Siachen Glacier is one of the world’s longest mountain glaciers lying near the India-Pakistan border. The glacier extends 70 kms from north-northwest to south-southeast (3 kms wide) with a number of fast flowing streams. It is the source of the 50-mile long Nubra River, a tributary of the Shyok”, unquote. Rising in the Karakorams the Shyok flows generally northwards fed by numerous glaciers on its way through the Range, the 550 kms long river joining the Indus at Khaplu.

In the face of such daunting physical environment and extreme weather conditions, man is subject to the 3P’s, Pathological, Physiological and Psychological. Pathological effects include accumulation of water in the lung or in the brain, pulmonary and cerebral oedema respectively, requiring the affected person to be brought down to lower heights immediately. In severe weather or fluid battle conditions, this becomes a difficult logistics operation. Snow blindness, frostbite and mountain sickness are also very common, debilitating ailments. On the physiological side, with temperatures even during summers 30 to 40 degrees below freezing and wind velocity reaching 70 kms per hour increasing multifold the wind-chill factor makes loss of sleep and loss of appetite to be common. The lack of oxygen at the high altitude reduces the work capacity to 65% of even trained and acclimatized men. The pathological and physiological pressures lead to psychological effects with intolerance in the forefront, by-products being intimidation and rashness. The normal camaraderie between individuals is broken, with loss of respect only a short distance away from indiscipline.

The Warriors
What manner of men are these who have chosen to serve in such a desolate and dangerous mission? They come from the finest that this country has given birth to, this is the flower of the Pakistani youth in full bloom, no grim faces here, only infectious smiles as well as a willingness and ready enthusiasm that is inspiring to those who are privileged to witness it. The maturity among the youthful faces is at once captivating as well as devastating. Why have all our flowers gone to mountain peaks everyone? To remain face to face with death so early in life for so extended a time on a daily basis is not what one would wish for anyone. As guardians of this country’s ideological and geographical frontiers, a more hostile environment for initiation from youth to manhood does not exist in this world.

The Brigade Commander at Siachen is symbolic of all our fighting men in Siachen. A rifle company commander in December 1971 in one of the outstanding infantry units of the Pakistan Army, 44 Punjab (later 4 Sindh), then commanded by one of the Army’s roughest, toughest COs, Lt Col (later Brig) Taj (hell to be with in peacetime, you would go to hell and back with him willingly in wartime), my former colleague is cool and calm as he briefs, with quiet confidence and conviction, hard-bitten journalists not easily given to emotion. One remembers him as a young officer, leading his elan troops with great elan in stabilizing the line in the sandy wastes beyond Chor in the Thar Desert in 1971, 25 years later he remains representative of the bravest and finest that this Army has on offer. His quiet courage was as much evident in Balochistan in 1973 as it is in Siachen in 1996. The years have aged him well, inculcating in him an inner strength, a coil of steel bound by the requirements of command. It is a sheer privilege to know him and men like him. In the beauty and desolation of Siachen you see many others like him, in the same mould of the modern Pakistani soldier, well-educated and well-groomed, ever ready to go to war in order to keep the peace for his countrymen. You stand humbled not only in the vicinity of such an environment but in the presence of such men. Siachen is a test of human and logistics endurance that has been forced on Pakistan but one in which Pakistan will not be forced out of. The charge of the horse cavalry against German Armour in World War II evoked the comment “C’est Magnifique, C’est pas la guerre”, It is magnificent, but it is not war. Reality overwhelms hyperbole in Siachen, it is magnificent but unfortunately, it is war.

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