ISLAMABAD, Oct. 5, Reuter: Pakistan has acknowledged that some of its troops were killed in a clash with India late last month over a glacier in the disputed Himalayan state of Kashmir.
State (Deputy) Defense Minister Rana Naeem Mahmood told Parliament on Sunday the Pakistani troops had “given the optimum sacrifice of even laying down their lives to defend the motherland”, the official APP news agency reported.
But he gave no figures of casualties.
In a statement on Thursday, Mahmood blamed India for the clash on September 24 and 25 in the Siachen Glacier, 6,300 meters up in the Karakoram mountains of north eastern Kashmir, and said Indian reports of the incident were exaggerated.
Indian Defense sources had earlier said 150 Pakistani soldiers were killed in the heaviest fighting in the area for three years.
Mahmood, in Sunday’s statement to the National Assembly (Lower House) said the Pakistani troops gave “a good account of bravery and ability to defend every inch of the soil”, and added: “No battle in the pat has been fought at such an altitude”.
Two of three wars between India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947 were fought over the formerly princely State of Kashmir. Minor clashes in the Siachen area have been frequent in recent years with each side accusing the other of starting the fighting.
India controls two thirds of Kashmir and Pakistan the rest.
New Delhi regards the whole of Kashmir as an integral part of India. But Islamabad says the Kashmiris, most of whom are Moslem, must decide in a United Nations supervised plebiscite whether to join Islamic Pakistan or Hindu majority India.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 9, 1987
