Military distrust dogs Indo-Pak glacier talks

Thousands of soldiers on both sides have died on the icy battlefield in the mountains of disputed Kashmir over the last two decades -- more due to altitude sickness, freezing temperatures, accidents and avalanches than to enemy fire.

The guns fell silent after the rivals agreed to a truce in 2003 along their frontier in Kashmir and began peace talks the next year to resolve a range of disputes, including Kashmir and Siachen, and bury nearly 60 years of enmity.

Officials have so far held two rounds of talks over Siachen and a third round of two-day talks is due to begin in the Indian capital on Tuesday.

Domestic media reports in the past few months in both countries have said that the two sides are inching towards a formula to withdraw troops from the disputed glacier.

Although bilateral ties have since warmed, the Indian army, which has fought three wars with Pakistan, is apparently resisting.

"You know the history between us," an Indian defence official told Reuters. He said the army had made its concerns over Siachen clear to Singh's government.

Siachen was an icy wasteland so desolate that the two countries had not even bothered to mark their frontier there. But in the early 1980s India grew worried over what it said was a new Pakistani interest in the area and occupied it.

It has since held the upper reaches of the region while Pakistani troops are lower down.

While some analysts say that the region has strategic significance, others dismiss it as of no consequence and not worth the colossal amounts of money spent to hold it.

New Delhi and Islamabad have often said that they want to end the conflict and pull troops back.

But a key sticking point has been India's insistence that troop positions be marked on a map and on the ground as evidence in case the area is reoccupied after a deal.

"Given Pakistan's track record in Kashmir, the army is unwilling to give up its positions," said Bharat Karnad, a security expert at New Delhi's Centre For Policy Research.

Karnad was referring to a near-war between the two sides in 1999 when Islamist infiltrators backed by the Pakistani army occupied the Himalayan heights in Kargil in Indian Kashmir and had to be pushed back.