20 OPERATION MEGHDOOT. INDIA'S WAR IN SIACHEN, 1984-2020.pdf

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Text © Sanjay Badri-Maharaj 2021
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CONTENTS
Abbreviations
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Introduction and Background
A History of Tension and Conflict
The Rival Forces
Operations Meghdoot and Ababeel
The Widening Conflict
Kargil War, 1999
Siachen in the 21st Century
2
3
5
9
20
37
43
50
58
59
64
Bibliography
Notes
About the Author
Note: In order to simplify the use of this book, all names, locations and geographic
designations are as provided in
The Times World Atlas,
or other traditionally accepted major
sources of reference, as of the time of described events.
ASIA@WAR VOLUME 20
ABBREVIATIONS
AAA
AAC
AAD
AB
ADC
ADCC
ADGES
AGPL
AIDMK
AM
An
APC
ARC
ARDE
ASC
ASCC
ATGM
BIT
BJP
BSF
CADA
CBM
CBRN
CCRP
CEP
CO
COIN
CRC
DGMI
DRDO
ELINT
EME
FAA
FF
GBP
GOC
GPS
GR
HAL
HAWS
HEER
HMG
HU
IAF
IB
IAP
ICV
IFV
IFG
IFSU
INC
INSAS
ISI
anti-aircraft artillery
Army Aviation Corps (India)
Army Air Defence (India)
air base
Air Defence Command (India)
Air Defence Command Centre (India)
Air Defence Ground Environment System (India)
Actual Ground Position Line
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (All
India Anna Dravidan Progressive
Federation)
Air Marshal (military commissioned officer rank,
equivalent to lieutenant-general)
Antonov (the design bureau led by Oleg Antonov)
armoured personnel carrier
Aviation Research Centre (India)
Armament Research and Development
Establishment (India)
Army Service Corps (India)
Air Standardisation Coordinating Committee
anti-tank guided missile
Brigade Intelligence Team
Bharatiya Janata Party (India)
Border Security Force (India)
Corps of Air Defence Artillery (India)
confidence-building measures
chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear
continuously controlled release point
circular error probable
Commanding officer
counterinsurgency
Control and Reporting Centre
Director General Military Intelligence (India)
Defence Research and Development Organization
electronic intelligence
Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
forward assembly area
Frontier Force (Pakistan)
British Pounds Sterling
General Officer Commanding
Global Positioning System
Gurkha Rifles
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
High Altitude Warfare School (India)
high explosive extended-range
heavy machine gun
Helicopter Unit (Indian Air Force)
Indian Air Force
Intelligence Bureau (India)
international airport
infantry combat vehicle
infantry fighting vehicle
Indian Field Gun
Intelligence and Field Surveillance Unit
Indian National Congress
Indian Small Arms System
Inter-Services Intelligence (Pakistan)
JAK LI
JCO
JIC
LAC
LDP
LFG
LGB
LoC
LTTE
MANPADs
MBB
MBRL
MBT
MiG
Jamu and Kashmir Light Infantry
Junior Commissioned Officer
Joint Intelligence Committee
Line of Actual Control
laser designation pod
Light Field Gun (India)
laser guided bomb
Line of Control
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Sri Lanka)
man-portable air defence system/s
Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Böhm (Germany)
multi-barrel rocket launcher
main battle tank
Mikoyan i Gurevich (the design bureau led by
Artyom Ivanovich Mikoyan and Mikhail
Iosifovich Gurevich, also known as OKB-155 or
MMZ ‘Zenit’)
Military Intelligence (India)
medium machine gun (FN MAG on a
tripod mount)
Mobile Observation Flight
Mobile Observation Post
Northern Light Infantry (Pakistan)
Officer in Command
Operational Conversion Unit
Operational Training Unit
Pakistan Air Force
Paratroop Regiment (Special Forces [Capable])
Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz)
Pakistan Occupied Kashmir
People’s Republic of China (or ‘mainland China’)
Rajputana Rifles (India)
Reorganized Army Plains Infantry Division (India)
Royal Air Force (of the United Kingdom)
Research and Analysis Wing (India)
Rasthtriya Rifles (India)
surface-to-air missile
Special Frontier Force (India)
signals intelligence
Self Loading Rifle
Squadron
Special Services Group (Pakistan)
Signals unit
transportable radar unit
unmanned aerial vehicle
Winter Air Support Operations
Weapons System Officer
MI
MMG
MOF
MOP
NLI
OC
OCU
OTU
PAF
Para SF
PML-N
POK
PRC
Raj Rif
RAPID
RAF
RAW
RR
SAM
SFF
SIGINT
SLR
Sqn
SSG
SU
TRU
UAV
WASO
WSO
2
OPERATION MEGHDOOT: INDIA’S WAR IN SIACHEN, 1984–2020
1
INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
The late South Asia expert, Professor Stephen Cohen, once described
the Siachen conflict between India and Pakistan as “two bald men
fighting over a comb”. That analogy has found some currency among
elite intellectual circles but it is an utterly nonsensical comparison
that belies a lack of appreciation of either geopolitical or strategic
reality. In India’s strategic and tactical military calculus, the Siachen
Glacier and the Saltoro Ridge are lynchpins to its control over
Ladakh and the security of its military positions therein. Despite
being a desolate and remote battlefield at extreme altitudes, India
remains determined to hold its positions, no matter the cost.
In some ways, the title of this book is a bit of a misnomer. The
Siachen conflict is not merely about Siachen and the conflict between
India and Pakistan over the Glacier and the Saltoro Ridge. It is as
much about the reorientation of the northern reaches of the Ladakh
region as well as its eastern sectors as a zone of a potential conflict
between three nuclear powers – China and Pakistan on one side and
India on the other. India has invested more in military resources to
maintain its positions in Ladakh, despite the extreme weather, than
might be seemingly warranted for its military orientation towards
Pakistan, including mountain divisions and a new Strike Corps.
central Asia from the Indian subcontinent in the heavily glaciated
portion of the Karakoram which is sometimes known as the ‘Third
Pole’. The actual glacier lies between the Saltoro Ridge, located on the
immediate west, and the main Karakoram Range located to the east.
The Siachen Glacier is bleak, inhospitable and represents the
highest battlefield in the world, where deaths from avalanches, cold
induced ailments, high altitude sickness and snow accidents are far
more common than deaths in actual combat. However, for India, it
has become a vital part of its military interests in the Ladakh region.
The Saltoro Ridge of the Siachen Glacier serves as a geographical
divide that prevents a direct geographical link between Pakistani
controlled areas of Kashmir and China. Given India’s apprehensions
of the military nexus between the two countries, it desires to prevent
them from developing direct, geographical military linkage in the
area. Siachen, in addition, because of its high altitude, enables India
to keep effective surveillance of the Gilgit and Baltistan regions of
Pakistani controlled Kashmir.
5
The crest of the Saltoro Ridge ranges from 5,450 metres (17,880
feet) to 7,720 metres (25,330 feet). The major access passes on the
Saltoro Ridge are – taking them in a north to south orientation, Sia
La at 5,589 metres (18,336 feet), Bilafond La at 5,450 metres (17,880
feet) and Gyong La at 5,689 metres (18,665 feet).
6
The Siachen Glacier system, inclusive of all its tributary glaciers,
is enormous at some 700 square kilometres in area and is the largest
ice mass outside of the Polar regions of the planet. In its north,
from Indira Col, which is located at an altitude above 5,753 metres
(18,875 feet) to the Siachen base camp located along the Shyok River
in the Nubra Valley, the Siachen Glacier is some 75 kilometres long
and five kilometres wide. The Siachen Glacier is joined by several
smaller ones and the point at Indira Col dominates the Shaksgam
Valley, ceded by Pakistan to China.
7
The Glacier
The Siachen Glacier, a bleak and inhospitable place, is a feature
situated in the eastern Karakoram Range of the Himalayas ranges
at about 35.421226°N and 77.109540°E, just northeast of the point
NJ9842, the latter being the point where the Line of Control between
India and Pakistan ends.
1
Being some 76 kilometres (47 miles) long,
it is the longest glacier in the Karakoram and in the world’s non-
polar areas, it is the second-longest. The glacier has an altitude of
5,753 metres (18,875 feet) above sea level from its head at Indira Col
situated at the India-China border down to 3,620 metres (11,875
feet) at its end.
2
Since 1984, the entire
Siachen Glacier, with all major
passes, has been under the
administration and control of
India (since August 2019 being
part of the union territory of
Ladakh, located in the Kashmir
region).
3
As part of the ongoing
dispute over the Kashmir
region, Pakistan maintains
a territorial claim over the
Siachen Glacier and exercises
physical control of the region
west of Saltoro Ridge, to the
west of the glacier, Pakistani
military posts are located some
3,000 feet below India’s posts,
more than 100 of which are
located on the glacial ridge.
4
Geologically, the Siachen
Glacier lies immediately south
of the great drainage divide that
Also known as the ‘Third Pole’, the area of the Siachen Glacier is a snow-covered mountain desert, and – because
separates the Eurasian Plate of
of its importance as a water source – the highest active battlefield in the world. (Indian Army)
3

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