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SIACHEN GLACIER

India, Pakistan start demilitarisation talk

PALLAB BHATTACHARYA, from New Delhi
The defence secretaries of India and Pakistan yesterday held talks in the Indian capital on military de-escalation on Siachen Glacier, the world's highest and coldest battlefield, after a break of seven years.
The two-day talks began with a 30-minute one-to-one meeting between Indian Defence Secretary Ajai Vikram Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Hamid Nawaz Khan. This was followed by delegation-level talks.
There was no official word from either side on what transpired at
yesterday's meeting but sources said a joint statement is likely at the end of the talks today.
The talks on the 23,000-foot high Siachen Glacier would be followed by India-Pakistan parleys on the issue of Sri Creek, a marshy land near Arabian Sea demarcating India's Rann of Kutch in Gujarat state and Pakistan's Sindh province.
The defence secretary-level talks are part of the composite dialogue between nuclear-powered India and Pakistan.
Ahead of the defence secretary-level meeting, Indian cabinet committee on security held a 90-minute meeting on Wednesday to firm up New Delhi's response to Pakistan's fresh proposals on de-escalation of military presence on the Siachen Glacier.
Pakistan favours mutual withdrawal of Indian and Pakistani troops in the Glacier to the 1971 proposition but India wants a freeze on the current position held by the forces of the two sides on the glacial heights and that the Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL) first demarcated.
Indian soldiers hold all vantage strategic points along the heights in Siachen and control key mountain passes along the Saltoro range since 1984. The two countries' claims to the Glacier are based on hugely differing interpretations of where the AGPL lies.
As part of the ceasefire along the Line of Control dividing India and Pakistan, the two sides currently hold fire all along the 72-kilometre Siachen Glacier.
The two countries had in the past discussed the Siachen Glacier conflict a number of times and came close to an agreement on deescalation in Siachen Glacier in 1989. The last round of defence secretarylevel talks were held in 1998.
The meeting between the defence secretaries came a day after the two countries wrapped up two days of talks on strengthening people-to-people and cultural contacts. They agreed to work out a mechanism to address issues relating to release of civilian prisoners and fishermen in each other's custody and exchange views on liberalising visa regime to promote travel of more pilgrims to shrines on both sides.
AFP adds from New Delhi: "We have a positive and an open mind on this issue, " Pakistani Defence Secretary Hamid Nawaz Khan said, referring to a 1990 proposal to demilitarise the 72-kilometre (45-mile) long Siachen glacier which straddles Himalayan Kashmir and overlooks China.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, meanwhile, summoned key cabinet colleagues to the defence ministry for a briefing on New Delhi's stand on the rugged
glacier, officials said.
Earlier Wednesday, India and Pakistan in a joint statement said they had discussed wide-ranging proposals to "promote friendly exchanges and cooperation in the fields of art, archaeology, culture, education, science and technology, tourism and youth affairs.
"The implementation of the programmes would be undertaken through mutual coordination," it said as the talks ended in New Delhi.
"Views were also exchanged on liberalizing the visa regime," it said, adding the two sides had also discussed ways to boost religious tourism.
"Both sides (also) agreed to address the humanitarian issues concerning civilian prisoners in each other's custody," the statement said, but it was not immediately known whether India sought the release of 54 of its soldiers held in Pakistani jails.
The talks are part of discussions known as the Composite Dialogue Process revived in January as part of a step-by-step approach to bury decades of hostilities.
The statement was silent on an end to a ban on Indian TV broadcasts in Pakistan. The restriction was imposed by Islamabad in 2002 after the two countries came close to war.
Indian government sources said the issue was broached in talks between Pakistani Tourism Secretary Jalil Abbas and his Indian counterpart Neena Ranjan.
"The implementation (of the ban's end) was not finalised," a senior government source said.
India and Pakistan, which have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since 1947, sent almost one million troops to their borders after the Indian parliament was attacked in December 2001 by Islamic rebels New Delhi said were sponsored by Islamabad. Pakistan denies the charge.
The ban on Indian television broadcasts across Pakistan came during the 10-month tense military standoff.