copenlu/druid huggingface dataset:
Claim: Siachen Glacier is a territory of India (Siachen Glacier, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2012-04-25): One such issue is the dispute over the Siachen Glacier, a territorial tussle with substantial economic and human costs for the two states. Tragically, on the eve of the meeting between the two heads of state, Siachen experienced a deadly avalanche killing 135 Pakistani soldiers and civilians. Known as the world’s highest battleground, Siachen is located at an elevation ranging between 11,000 to 22,000 feet. Since April 1984, when India and Pakistan deployed troops in a tit-for-tat competition for territory, both militaries have lost an estimated 5,000 and 3,000 soldiers respectively, primarily due to adverse climate and treacherous terrain. While an unofficial cease-fire at the Siachen Glacier remains in force since 2003, both India and Pakistan continue an armed standoff in the region. Exclusive territorial claims stem from ambiguities in agreements defining the cease-fire line, or the Line of Control to the northeast of Kashmir following the wars of 1948 and 1971. India has approximately 7,000 troops deployed in the region, and Pakistan about 4,000.
Claim: Siachen Glacier is a territory of India (Siachen Glacier, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2020-07-15): The Siachen War is a salutary lesson in how military operations in these mountains can escalate far beyond their initial intentions. In 1978, India sent army mountaineers to explore the 76-kilometer long Siachen glacier, which forms a wedge between territory held by Pakistan and China in a bleak, glaciated no man’s land high in the Karakoram mountains. Pakistan had been allowing foreign climbers into the region and India wanted to check what was going on. Based on interviews I conducted for my book, there was no intention on the part of either India or Pakistan to start a war. But as Indian military mountaineers returned every summer in the following years, Pakistan sent its own men up to find out what the Indians were up to. Soon mountaineering expeditions mutated into military patrols and the two countries became convinced the other planned to take over Siachen. In 1984, both countries made plans to occupy the Saltoro ridge that overlooks the Siachen glacier — not because they particularly wanted it, but because they did not want the other side to have it.
Claim: Siachen Glacier is a territory of India (Siachen Glacier, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-05-03): (TibetanReview.net, May03’24) —India has lodged a strong protest to China last week over the latter’s building of a road in Shaksgam Valley which belongs to it, and which also has the potential to threaten Indian defences in Siachen Glacier. This 5180 square-kilometre Indian territory was illegally ceded by Pakistan to China in 1963, noted the hindustantimes.com and other reports May 3. India lodged its protest against China both in New Delhi and Beijing. Besides, road could be part of an alignment that links Karakoram Highway to Upper Shaksgam Valley, bordering the Siachen Glacier. [...] The hindustantimes.com report said the matter was of serious concern to India for if China extends the road to Upper Shaksgam Valley, then the Indian positions on Siachen Glacier will face twin threats — Pakistan in the South and China to the north. It is only logical to assume that the Indian Army will have to plan long term defences to deal with Chinese expansion in the Occupied Shaksgam Valley.
Claim: Siachen Glacier is a territory of India (Siachen Glacier, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2012-06-11): Then came the maps. They appeared in the 1970s, brought to India by tourists and travelers and showing the unclaimed Siachen glacier as Pakistani territory. India accused Pakistan of "cartographic aggression." [...] However, India’s strategy had already gone awry. The original Indian intention was to put on a show of force, stake a claim, and withdraw before the winter. Nobody had ever spent the winter months in Siachen. But India had underestimated the Pakistani reaction. The very bizarreness of the Indian plan — to march its men to the top of the hill and march them down again — totally confused the Pakistan Army, or so its officers told me. To a military mind, the operation should have a clear objective, maybe to continue beyond the passes and occupy parts of Pakistani-held territory, or to reach the Karakoram Highway, the only road link between Pakistan and China. The simplest explanation — that India occupied Siachen not because it needed to but because it did not want Pakistan to have it — seemed too straightforward to be true. Yet in all the interviews I had with men involved on the Indian side, I found nothing to suggest there had ever been a bigger game plan.
Claim: Siachen Glacier is a territory of India (Siachen Glacier, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-06-06): The icy wilderness of the Siachen Glacier, once uninhabited, is now home to armies of two neighbouring nuclear states. The conflict over Siachen began in April 1984, when India launched Operation Meghdoot, a military operation to capture most of the Siachen Glacier. This operation was launched under the pretext that the Line of Control (LOC) runs from NJ9842 along the watersheds formed by the Saltoro Ridge, which places the entire Siachen Glacier within Indian territory. India relied on the Karachi Agreement (1949), where beyond NJ9842, the LOC was to run "thence north to the glaciers". Since then, it has been the world’s highest and coldest battleground. However, before 1984, Pakistan exercised authority over the terrain of the Siachen Glacier, issuing mountaineering expedition licenses for the area and allowing travellers with Pakistani visas to visit the site. Interestingly, India, before 1984, never contested Pakistan’s administrative control over the Siachen Glacier. This historical context is crucial to understanding the complexity and urgency of the Siachen conflict and its environmental impact.
Claim: Siachen Glacier is a territory of India (Siachen Glacier, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2020-02-05): That perception changed a few years later. In the late 1970s India woke up to the fact that publications abroad, including U.S. government documents, were carrying maps that showed the LoC extending northeast from NJ 9842 to the Karakoram Pass. In other words, the Siachen Glacier was appearing in maps as part of Pakistani territory. Besides, it learned that Pakistan was permitting Western mountaineers access to the Siachen and the ridges flanking it, quietly establishing its claim over the area. [...] The two countries base their claims over the glacier on different interpretation of the words "… thence north to the glaciers" in the 1949 and 1972 Agreements. To Pakistan it means a straight line from NJ 9842 in a northeasterly direction to the Karakoram Pass, giving it control over the Siachen Glacier. India argues that from NJ 9842, the boundary line should run through the nearest watershed, the Saltoro Ridge, which means that the glacier is rightfully India’s.
Claim: Siachen Glacier is a territory of India (Siachen Glacier, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-04-25): In a development that could have security implications for India, China is building a road in a part of illegally occupied Kashmir close to the Siachen Glacier – touted as the world’s highest battlefield, satellite pictures show. The road in Shaksgam Valley, a part of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) ceded to China in 1963, branches out from an extension of Highway G219 in China’s Xinjiang and disappears into mountains at a place (coordinate: 36.114783°, 76.671051°) approximately 50 km north of India’s northernmost point, Indira Col in Siachen Glacier – a forward area visited by Defence Minister Rajnath two times since March. [...] Last year, India also lodged strong diplomatic protests with Beijing for showing Aksai Chin plateau as its official territory. In 2015, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar said the country had protested the Chinese plans to invest $46 billion into a China-Pakistan economic corridor.
Claim: Siachen Glacier is a territory of India (Siachen Glacier, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-04-15): "The land is so barren and the passes so high that only the best of friends and fiercest of enemies come by" — reads a Ladakhi saying at Kumar post on the Siachen Glacier located at an altitude of 15,632 feet. The saying captures the conflict on the icy glacier between India and Pakistan. April 13, 2024 marks four decades since the Indian Army pre-empted Pakistan and occupied the glacier on the Saltoro ridge, overlooking the Nubra valley in the Karakoram ranges. Extreme weather is the biggest enemy on the glacier. Around 1,150 soldiers have lost their lives, majority of them to the vagaries of extreme weather. [...] Siachen is a legacy of the Partition between India and Pakistan. While the Line of Control (LoC) was delineated and accepted by both sides upto NJ-9842 as part of the 1972 Simla agreement, the glacier itself was left unmarked. India claims the area based on the Jammu and Kashmir Accession Agreement of 1947 and the Karachi Agreement of 1949, which define the ceasefire line beyond NJ-9842 as running "Northwards to the glaciers". On the other hand, Pakistan interprets it as ‘North-Eastwards’ to claim the area beyond the Saltoro Ridge and beyond Siachen as its own. This would give Pakistan direct connectivity to China as well as strategic oversight over the Ladakh region and the crucial Leh-Srinagar highway, posing a serious threat to India.
Claim: Siachen Glacier is a territory of India (Siachen Glacier, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-03-17): An astronaut aboard the International Space Station captured this image of the Siachen Glacier on the spine of the Karakoram mountains in central Asia. This remote part of the world—where territories of Pakistan, India, and China all meet—is uninhabited and lies well above the tree line. Siachen is the second-longest glacier within Earth’s midlatitudes, which exclude, for example, the continental glaciers of Antarctica and Greenland. It measures 75 kilometers (47 miles) long and is 3.5 kilometers (2.2 miles) wide at the top-center of this image. The image shows four smaller tributary glaciers flowing into the main Siachen Glacier. The many dark, parallel lines in the glacier and its tributaries are moraines, which give a sense of the southward flow of the glacier. The darkest and most prominent moraine results from the merging of moraines from the Teram Shehr Glacier and its neighbor immediately to the north. Early afternoon sunlight casts shadows from small cumulus clouds onto the glaciers’ surfaces.
Claim: Siachen Glacier is a territory of India (Siachen Glacier, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2021-03-05): When Britain hastily ended its imperial occupation of South Asia, the resulting Partition of India in 1947 left unresolved religious conflicts and ill-defined borders between India and Pakistan. While some borders were settled upon, others were left up to dispute. This is the case in Kashmir where the Line of Control, or former ceasefire line, acts as a de facto border. Siachen is located north of Point NJ 9842, the Line of Control’s northernmost agreed-upon point. The ambiguity of the glacier’s location has made it prone to territorial claims by both sides, who consider its possession "a matter of national prestige," according to the study’s author, Kristin Smith, an independent researcher and journalist. Smith explains in the study that disputes over Siachen’s territoriality first arose in 1975 when American maps marking the glacier as part of Pakistan provoked sharp backlash from India, who considered the maps "cartographic aggression." By 1984, the situation had turned violent. The Indian army launched Operation Meghdoot to occupy the glacier and cut off Pakistan from key ridges and passes. Until a ceasefire in 2003, armed conflict continued for nearly 40 years, causing an estimated 2,700 deaths. Battles have not broken out since, but neither have troops from either side withdrawn. While soldiers are no longer at active risk of combat, they still face the dangers of Siachen’s treacherous glacial terrain and harsh climate.
Claim: Siachen Glacier is a territory of India (Siachen Glacier, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2014-04-12): Siachen dispute: India and Pakistan’s glacial fight - Published On 13 April 1984, Indian troops snatched control of the Siachen glacier in northern Kashmir, narrowly beating Pakistan. Thirty years later, the two sides remain locked in a stand-off, but the Indian army mountaineer who inspired the operation says his country must hang on whatever the cost. [...] India immediately dispatched troops to the Siachen, beating Pakistan by a week. By then they had already got control of the glacier and the adjacent Saltoro ridge, using Col Kumar's maps. One of the key Indian installations on the Siachen today is named Kumar Base after him.
Claim: Siachen Glacier is a territory of India (Siachen Glacier, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2012-04-12): Siachen Glacier: World’s highest battleground [...] Siachen Glacier, 71km long and one of the world’s largest glaciers, is situated in the north of the disputed region of Kashmir. [...] Ever since Indian forces occupied the Siachen Glacier in 1984, both India and Pakistan have fought intermittent artillery duels.
Claim: Saltoro Ridge is a territory of India (Saltoro Ridge, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-10-08): Saltoro Kangri peak, Saltoro River, and Saltoro Valley are features within the Saltoro Mountains range. The Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL) demarcates the boundary between the areas held by India and Pakistan in this region. In the Siachen area, India controls the high peaks and passes, while Pakistan occupies the lower peaks and valleys to the west.[2] The Saltoro Mountains are part of the Lesser Karakorams and are situated on the southwestern side of the major Karakoram glaciers, including the Siachen, Baltoro, Biafo and Hispar Glacier, which run from east to west. The primary ridge of the Karakoram Range is located to the northeast of these glaciers. [...] The Saltoro Range is claimed by India as part of the Ladakh region and as part of the Gilgit–Baltistan region by Pakistan. Between 1984 and 1987, India assumed military control of the main peaks and passes of the range, with Pakistani forces holding the glacial valleys just to the west.[citation needed] Hence, despite high peaks and dramatic climbing opportunities, they are rarely visited except by military forces due to the ongoing Siachen Conflict.
Claim: Saltoro Ridge is a territory of India (Saltoro Ridge, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2021-05-29): Saltoro Kangri is a 7,742 metres (25,400 ft) mountain in the Karakoram range, in the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region.[1] It is also known as Saltoro Range. The name means Yellow Mountain.[2] It is the 31st highest mountain in the world. The first people to reach the top were R.A. Bashir, A. Saito, and Y. Takamura, in 1962.
Claim: Saltoro Ridge is a territory of India (Saltoro Ridge, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2019-06-20): The inhospitable terrain beyond point NJ9842 was not demarcated, simply because U.N. officials didn’t think either country would ever dispute such a barren region. But in the decades following the Karachi Agreement, both India and Pakistan claimed sovereignty over the Siachen area. Then, in 1983, India began receiving intelligence reports warning of an imminent Pakistani incursion into the region, and a potential assault on the Saltoro Ridge, a strategic location on the southwest side of the Siachen Glacier. [...] Pakistan went ahead and launched Operation Ababeel in April 1984, with the intention of taking the Saltoro Ridge. But thanks to the previously obtained intelligence, India launched Operation Meghdoot just 48 hours before the Pakistani assault. When the Pakistan forces arrived, the Indians had already captured the heights of Saltoro. [...] But from the 2003 ceasefire up until the present day, things remained much as they had before, with India in control of the Siachen Glacier and all of its tributary glaciers, as well as all the main passes and ridges of the Saltoro Ridge. Pakistan, meanwhile, holds posts at lower elevations along the spurs of the Saltoro ridgeline.
Claim: Saltoro Ridge is a territory of India (Saltoro Ridge, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2008-08-01): Saltoro Kangri, previously known as Peak 36, stands as the highest peak within the Saltoro Mountains subrange, which is part of the larger Karakoram range. This subrange is also referred to as the Saltoro Range and is situated within the Karakoram region. The term "Saltoro Kangri" typically encompasses both of its twin peaks, Saltoro Kangri I (located to the south) and Saltoro Kangri II, which are connected by a saddle. When comparing heights, the generic term "Saltoro Kangri" is used for the taller of the two peaks, Saltoro Kangri I. This peak ranks as the 31st highest mountain globally and is located in the remote reaches of the Karakoram. It lies on the Actual Ground Position Line, dividing Indian-controlled territory in the Siachen region from Pakistani-controlled territory to the west of the Saltoro Range. By elevation Saltoro Kangri is # 1 out of 67 in Diskit Nubra # 4 out of 13857 in India # 21 out of 8262 in Pakistan # 1 out of 246 in Ladakh # 1 out of 60 in Karakoram (Nubra Shyok) WLS # 16 out of 552 in the Karakoram By prominence Saltoro Kangri is # 2 out of 67 in Diskit Nubra # 11 out of 13857 in India # 15 out of 8262 in Pakistan # 2 out of 246 in Ladakh # 2 out of 60 in Karakoram (Nubra Shyok) WLS # 11 out of 552 in the Karakoram
Claim: Saltoro Ridge is a territory of India (Saltoro Ridge, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-10-08): The first ascent of Saltoro Kangri was in July 1962, by a joint Japanese-Pakistani expedition led by T. Shidei. This piggyback expedition put A. Saito, Y. Takamura and Pakistani climber R.A. Bashir on the top on July 24, following the S.E. ridge route.[1][7] The peak was again climbed by an Indian Army expedition led by Colonel Narendra Kumar in 1981.[8] US maps of the area and many world atlases starting in the 1960s showed the Line of Control between Pakistani and Indian territory running from the last defined point in the 1949 Karachi Agreement, NJ9842, east-northeast to the Karakoram Pass, thus putting the whole of Saltoro Kangri and the entire Siachen Glacier in Pakistan. However, the Simla Agreement defined the Line of Control no further than point NJ9842 other than with the phrase "thence north to the glaciers." The Himalayan Index lists only one more ascent of the mountain, in 1981, and no other attempts.
Claim: Saltoro Ridge is a territory of India (Saltoro Ridge, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2022-11-11): Saltoro Kangri Peak is more popular as the Saltoro Range, which is a part of the Karakoram. It is the highest peak of the Saltoro Mountains and is the 31st highest independent mountain in the world. Saltoro Kangri Peak is a rugged mountain of rock, ice, and snow. It lies on the southern side of the Siachen Glacier. [...] Saltoro Kangri Peak is situated in the distant areas of Karokoram range. It is located at an altitude of 7742 metres (25,400 feet) above mean sea level. [...] The name Saltoro Kangri means Yellow Mountains. Saltoro Kangri Peak`s long crescent ridge supports numerous glaciers. The only problem with this peak is it is situated in a very remote location, deep in the Karakoram. It rises dramatically above the Pakistani valleys of the Kondus and Saltoro Rivers to the west of the peak. Owing to the danger from military operations, this peak is not visited much. The best time to explore the beauty of this peak is July, August, September.
Claim: Saltoro Ridge is a territory of India (Saltoro Ridge, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2018-04-12): The Indian claim on the Siachen Glacier is based on the widely accepted watershed principle of demarcation, and runs for almost 110 kms along the Saltoro Ridge from slightly west of NJ 9842 and ends at the Indira Col, a pass that is dominated by the Sia Kangri Mastiff at the tri-junction of India-Pakistan and Shaksgam (ceded to China by Pakistan, but still claimed by India). While India claimed that the LOC thereafter (now called the Actual Ground Position Line or AGPL) ought to follow this line, Pakistan claimed that the LOC should continue as the crow flies in a north-easterly direction by joining Pt NJ 9842 with the Karakoram pass. [...] Control of the glacier for India became even more critical considering that just east of the glacier lay the vast high altitude desert plains that the Indian Army calls Sub-Sector North (SSN). This is the area that saw much action in the 1962 India-China War and includes the Indian Advance Landing Ground (ALG) of Daulat Beg Oldie, and contested areas of the Depsang Plains that have seen numerous face-offs in the recent past between Indian and Chinese border patrols. Strategically, should Pakistan have taken control of the Siachen Glacier, SSN would have been sandwiched between Pakistani and Chinese forces, a fact that was well appreciated by the Indian Army leadership. The entire Siachen Glacier, with all major passes, is currently under the administration of India since 1984. Pakistan controls the region west of Saltoro Ridge, with posts located almost 3,000 ft below over 50 Indian posts.
Claim: Saltoro Ridge is a territory of India (Saltoro Ridge, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2021-12-31): - Saltoro Ridge occupation is staking a claim beyond NJ 9842 in the event of an eventual settlement along the Line of Control and the Actual Ground Position Line. - India has always claimed that the entire state of J&K including Northern Areas acceded to India on 26 Oct 1947. Occupation of Saltoro is therefore the occupation of Indian territory by the Indian Army. It is non-negotiable. - If the line joining NJ 9842 to Indira Col i.e, the line along Saltoro Ridge is extended to the Indo – Tibet boundary, a major part of Shaksgam Valley illegally ceded to China by Pakistan in 1963 will fall into Indian Kashmir.
Claim: Saltoro Ridge is a territory of India (Saltoro Ridge, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2023-06-23): In 1972, the Shimla Conference took place led by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. After India’s victory over Pakistan in the 1971 Bangladesh War, the Siachen Glacier was left unmarked again, this time under an agreement known as the ‘Suchetgarh Agreement’. According to the Indian government’s interpretation, the Pakistani domain extended from Saltoro Ridge till NJ9842, whereas Pakistan claimed that its domain extended further east, to the Karakoram Pass. [...] During his expedition, Col Narendra Kumar encountered a German mountaineering expedition, whose map showed the areas beyond NJ9842, and almost 4,000 sq km of territory around it, as Pakistani domain. This alarmed the then-Indian Army chief, General T N Raina. The Indian government thus decided to deploy Indian soldiers in the Saltoro Ridge but due to the extreme cold and inhospitable weather conditions in the region, they would be deployed only in summer. [...] Drawing on the title of the 4th Century CE Sanskrit play Meghdoot by Kalidasa (based on the message of love carried by a cloud to the Himalayas), the military operation named Operation Meghdoot was secretly launched under the leadership of Lt-Gen Prem Nath Hoon. In his conversation with Nitin Gokhale author of Beyond NJ 9842: The Siachen Saga (2014), Brig Vijay Channa, then the commander of 26 Sector HQ, reveals that he was asked to choose a date between 10 and 30 April for the occupation of the Saltoro Ridge. He chose 13 April, the festive day of Baisakhi, when the Pakistanis would least expect the Indian side to launch any military operation.