WSN Bureau LONDON: Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi might exacerbate the tension between his country and Pakistan over the Siachen glacier, the prestigious newspaper Times reported on September 9.
Meanwhile, state owned All India Radio reported on September 11 serious skirmishes between the Indian and Pakistani armies.
The report by Christopher Thomas, published in the Times, said that “the more Siachen gets ensnared in regional rivalries, the more it feeds and grows on Hindu Muslim hatreds.” It said that a war could spread and engulf the subcontinent.
The peace talks on resolving the issue ended inconclusively in New Delhi last month when both the sides refused to back down from their claims on the inhospitable 74 miles long and 2 miles wide mountain glacier in the Karakoram range of Kashmir, the defense of which is draining both countries of huge amounts of money and a number of men.
The report says, as India moves to general elections expected in December Rajiv Gandhi may inflame cross border tensions that might take them to a border clash.
Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto can also not back down on Siachen which would give Pakistan a common border with China and thus be strategically important. In fact Pakistan has announced that it will hold a major military exercise on its side of Kashmir, a move which India is viewing with intense suspicion.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 15, 1989
