New Delhi: The two-day Indo-Pak talks on demilitarisation of Siachen glacier ended on Saturday in Islamabad without any agreement on troop pullout from the world’s highest battlefield with Pakistan terming the deployment of Indian troops in Siachen as "illegal occupation".
The talks failed to make headway as Pakistan turned down Indian demand for authentication of the troop positions held by both sides before any withdrawal of forces begins.
Authentication of troop positions along the 110-km-long The Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL) was a ‘prerequisite’ for withdrawal and subsequent demilitarisation measures.
But reaffirming the support for the ceasefire, which has been in existence since November 2003, the two sides agreed to continue talks in future.
The talks were held between Defence Secretary Shekhar Dutt and his Pakistani counterpart Kamran Rasool in a candid and constructive atmosphere at Pakistani Army headquarters in Rawalpindi, where both sides apparently stuck to their basic positions.
The nine-member Indian delegation, which included Director General of Military Operations (DGMO), Lt Gen Mohan Pande; Joint Secretary External Affairs Ministry, Dilip Sinha; and Surveyor General, Gopal Rao as well as Indian High Commissioner to Islamabad, Satyabrata Pal, took part in the talks, which were held as part of the fourth round of Composite Dialogue process.
While India, whose troops controlled advance positions on the world's highest glacier, insisted on their authentication on the maps, Pakistan which termed the 1984 deployment of Indian troops in Siachen as "illegal occupation" rejected it saying that Indian forces have to withdraw first.
Pakistan claims that India forcibly occupied Siachen heights in violation of the 1949 Karachi Agreement and the 1972 Simla Accord.
The failure to make progress came as a surprise as a day before the parleys a Pakistani newspaper in Islamabad had reported that Pakistan had conveyed its willingness to authenticate the troop positions on the glacier before the withdrawal of the forces provided India did not attach any legal status to it.
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But, some newspapers in Islamabad on Saturday morning quoted Pakistani officials as saying after the first round of talks that the parleys failed even before the two sides met for the second round on Saturday.
According to Pakistani officials, India was given a detailed "package" plan during the Foreign Secretary-level talks in November 2006, which incorporated a "schedule of disengagement" in which it had agreed to record the positions held by Indian troops.
The talks apparently failed with Pakistan insisting that an "agreement" reached between both sides in 1989 should be implemented first to withdraw the troops before it authenticated the "future positions." For its part, India wanted authentication first before the withdrawal which Pakistan ruled out on the premise that it amounted to "endorsing the Indian aggression."
Apparently Pakistan's concerns were based on the experience of Line of Control (LoC) dividing both sides of Kashmir. Even though Pakistan insisted that LoC was not a border, it authenticated the parameters of the LoC, which gained considerable international recognition. Pakistan did not want to accord that status to AGPL.
"Pakistan has not agreed on authentication which was basis for any plans to withdraw the troops by both sides. The Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL) has to be authenticated," as quoted by PTI, an Indian official, who attended the talks, said.
The only novel feature of this round of talks on Siachen was the Pakistani side was headed by a civilian Defence Secretary, a post hitherto held by military officials.
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