Siachen War

The Siachen War was a military fight between India and Pakistan over a glacier in the Kashmir region. It began in 1984 when India took control of the Siachen Glacier during Operation Meghdoot and continued with Operation Rajiv in 1987. India now controls the glacier and the nearby mountain passes. Even though a ceasefire was agreed upon in 2003, both countries still have a large number of troops in the area. The extreme weather and harsh conditions have caused thousands of deaths. Many observers see the conflict as unnecessary because the glacier itself has little practical value.

 Causes 
The Siachen Glacier is the highest battlefield in the world, where India and Pakistan have fought off and on since April 13, 1984. Both countries keep soldiers there all the time, even though it's over 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) high and extremely difficult to live in. More than 2,000 people have died, mostly because of the harsh weather and dangerous mountain conditions rather than direct fighting.

 Paragraph B 2 (d) of Karachi Agreement 
After the UN helped broker a ceasefire in 1949, India and Pakistan agreed on a boundary up to a point called NJ9842, near the Siachen Glacier. However, the difficult-to-reach land beyond that was not officially marked on maps, only described in a general way in the Karachi Agreement.

After the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and the Simla Agreement in 1972, the ceasefire line between India and Pakistan was renamed the Line of Control (LoC). It stretched from the Chhamb sector, near the international border, up to the Turtok-Partapur sector in the north. However, the description of the northernmost part was unclear, stating that the LoC runs northeast to Thang (controlled by India) and then eastward to the glaciers. This vague wording led to confusion and eventually contributed to the ongoing dispute over the Siachen Glacier.

References

Category:Wars involving Pakistan
Category:Wars involving India
Category:1984 in India