Siachen: April 13

April 13, 2024 marks four decades since the Indian Army pre-empted Pakistan and occupied the Siachen glacier on the Saltoro ridge, overlooking the Nubra valley in the Karakoram ranges. While a... Pakistan, like India, has about 10,000 soldiers camped on this glacier. For a soldier, this is where hell freezes over, a 46-mile river of slow-moving ice surrounded by stupendous towers of snow. Temperatures swoon to 50 below, and sudden blizzards can bury field artillery in minutes. It is a piedmont glacier located in the Karakoram Range. It lies in the heavily glaciated Himalayan region known as the “Third Pole,” because mountain glaciers in this region contain more freshwater than is found anywhere else on Earth except for the polar ice caps. The Siachen conflict, sometimes referred to as the Siachen Glacier conflict or the Siachen War, was a military conflict between India and Pakistan over the disputed 1,000-square-mile (2,600 km 2) [13] Siachen Glacier region in Kashmir.