Blood And Ice at 20,000 Ft.

The Siachen Glacier is a desolate slab of ice deep in the Karakoram mountain range of northern Kashmir. For three nights late last month, it was the scene of the bloodiest fighting between India and Pakistan since 1971, the last time the two neighbors went to war. In a statement last week, the Indian Defense Ministry confirmed that a "major battle" had taken place on the contested glacier after as many as 1,200 Pakistani troops, backed by artillery and rockets, attacked Indian positions. The Indians claim to have held their ground, losing 20 men and killing about 80 Pakistanis. Said an Indian official: "This was Pakistan's attempt to take some real estate before winter sets in."

The 50-mile-long glacier could not be a more unlikely battlefield. Located at altitudes of 18,000 ft. to 20,000 ft., the area is so inhospitable that when Kashmir was split between India and Pakistan following the war in 1971, peace negotiators did not bother to draw the line through it. Patrols from the two countries skirmished on Siachen in 1982. Since then, Islamabad and New Delhi have decided that vital strategic interests, particularly the control of mountain passes bordering the glacier, are at stake. Today a total of 10,000 Indian and Pakistani troops occupy bases in the area. The high altitude makes it especially hazardous duty for soldiers. Indian officials say as many as 500 Indian troops on the glacier die each year from altitude sickness or in accidents.

Islamabad had no comment about the recent battle until the Indian announcement. Then Rana Naeem Mahmood, Pakistan's Minister of State for Defense, told Parliament that "in consequence of aggressive measures by Indian troops in the Siachen area, serious clashes took place." Indian figures for Pakistani dead were "highly exaggerated," he claimed. Indian and Pakistani officials said last week that a cease-fire seems to be holding. But with winter coming, that may be more a matter of necessity than goodwill.