Siachen fire kills 2 army officers

New Delhi, July 22: Fire on ice has killed two Indian army officers and singed four other soldiers in a reminder to the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan a week before they come face-to-face that the two countries are still waging a war minus the shooting in the Siachen glacier.

Major Gurtej Singh Cheema and Lieutenant Archit Vardiya were in a complex of three fibreglass bunkers in the northern part of the glacier when the fire broke out on Wednesday night.

Four soldiers were injured in efforts to rescue them. The soldiers were flown by helicopter hours later to a military hospital in Leh. The bunkers were said to be at a height of about 19,000 feet.

Accidents and the harsh weather have claimed more lives in the Siachen glacier and the Saltoro ridge flanking it than gunfire. The firing has stopped after India declared — and Pakistan accepted — a ceasefire in 2003. But extremes of temperature and terrain continue to strain the militaries of the two countries.

Last November, an Indian Air Force Cheetah helicopter with two pilots went down while attempting to airdrop supplies. The pilots survived with injuries.

Before that, in August, a cloudburst and flashflood in Ladakh swept away six Indian soldiers whose bodies were recovered later with Pakistani help.

Despite Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s aspiration for a “peace park” in Siachen, the armies and the air forces of the two countries continue to sustain their men and posts at the cost of themselves and at the cost of the environment.

In the 12th round of talks on May 31 this year between the defence secretaries of the two countries, Islamabad gave a “non-paper” to New Delhi, explaining its position on Siachen and urging for a demilitarisation.

This is easier said than done for India, whose soldiers man most of the dominating heights on the Saltoro ridge and, therefore, are more susceptible to the weather and the fragile logistics at forbidding heights. The Indian soldiers cannot vacate the heights for fear that they might be occupied by the Pakistanis. And the Pakistanis cannot scale the precipitous climbs because the Indians have a tactical advantage.

That has been the situation since 1984, when then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi gave the go-ahead to the Indian army and the airforce’s “Operation Meghdoot” — the codename for the airdrop to occupy and dominate the heights.

Foreign ministers S.M. Krishna and Hina Rabbani Khar, scheduled to meet in New Delhi on July 27, are expected to factor in the discussions that the defence secretaries had in their dialogue.

Details of the incident — still being seen as an accident — are yet to emerge. The army has ordered a court of inquiry.

There is the likelihood that a kerosene bukhari (stove) that was being used by the officers as a hearth to keep themselves warm through an icy night exploded. Bukhariexplosions are not unknown in Siachen.