Acing the Soltoro Ridge Forty years back
By Col Satish Singh Lalotra
‘Quartered in snow, silent to remain when the bugle blows they shall rise and march again’-SIACHEN GLACIER EPITAPH.
‘Soldier of Siachen, we salute you. There are soldiers and soldiers. But you are a soldier and more. You braved the dangers of soldiering and others too. The dangers of burial in a crevasse or by an avalanche. Or being crippled by the pain that comes with the ice gales of Karakorum, Soltoro and Ladakh ranges. Be proud that you inhaled the pure Himalayan air, because it is the same air that in the plains fertilizes the thoughts of patriots. Be content that you lived on glacial heights in the service of the nation.
For the supreme mountain goddess inspired and guided you towards the glory of your fate’-unquote. Well these words have been sourced from the iconic book —‘Beyond NJ 9842: The Siachen Saga’ written by famous defence expert Nitin Gokhale.
13th April 2024, rings a bell in the ears of all those who trudged on those icy heights forty (40) years before in 1984 propelled by an unknown zeal that was fired in their hearts to put an end to the misadventures by our arch enemy Pakistan at one of the northern most ends of our sub-continent.
As ‘Cloud messengers” spearheading one of the longest and still counting operation In the annals of Indian army going by the name OP MEGHDOOT’, there have been countless soldiers and officers who have been relentlessly trudging the same icy heights even today ; acting as a bulwark against our western neighbour’s nefarious designs.
I too became one of those cloud messengers way back in 1995 when on a crash signal emanating from HQ SFF ordered me to join ‘OP MEGHDOOT’ in Siachen glacier while posted as a company commander at an air maintained forward post in Arunachal Pradesh. Much about that later.
It was only fortuitous that India launched ‘OP MEGHDOOT’ in the wee hours of 13th April 1984 thus thwarting Pakistani designs by a whisker who were literally on the blocs waiting for a favourable weather condition on the glacier. But then fortunes favour the brave. That favourable condition has since proven elusive for Pakistan for the last forty years.
After the Indian long range patrol -Polar Bear II and the Pakistani SSG ( Special service group) came face to face on Bilafond La in the winter of 1983 both sides knew that the other would make a dash for the glacier as soon as the weather permitted.
Despite the easier access to the passes from the Pakistani side, India beat Pakistan in the race to Siachen by moving first on 13th April 1984. And why the name Meghdoot? Stories about this are part of Siachen folklore in India.
Thousands of reams of papers have been rolled out both from the writers and peaceniks across the Radcliff line with many of them coming out with the preposterous idea of turning Siachen Glacier into a ‘Mountain of peace’.
Our own ex-PM Manmohan Singh being one of the biggest votaries of this line of thought. Though the idea of ‘Mountain of peace’ in itself is not abhorred by India on its northern frontiers, it would be well within the realm of country’s think tanks and policy makers to take stock of our western neighbour’s past history in such cases tempered with a sense of realpolitik.
Why is Siachen Glacier so important for India that the country forks out thousands of crores year after year to maintain its one brigade sized (plus) force, where not a single blade of grass grows? Again thousands of papers and books have been written by eminent personalities who were directly and indirectly involved in this super high altitude warfare propounding their own line of thought.
Just to recapitulate-The Siachen glacier demarcates Central Asian land mass from the Indian sub-continent as also our two inimical neighbouring countries China and Pakistan from joining hands.
The so called ‘Triangular wedge’ of Siachen glacier is the only piece of land between NJ 9842 and the Karakorum pass that prevents our two inimical neighbours China and Pakistan from cooking a broth that doesn’t serve our national interests.
The 1999 Kargil war was one such broth that was the doing of Pakistan which had its trails leading to the failed attempt to cover itself with glory on the Soltoro ridge in Karakorum mountains way back in 1984.
The area also serves as watch tower for India to keep a watch on Gilgit and Baltisthan regions of Pakistan occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir. If Pakistan gets a locational advantage by wresting Siachen glacier, it would become a thorn for India from the west in Ladakh in addition to the Chinese threats from the Aksai Chin of the east.
The 2020 Galwan clash was a reminder for the country that the relentless westward pushes indulged by the PLA was one such aggression that was backed by such a geo-political necessity.
Due to its control over Soltoro ridge, India is better placed to strike a bargain while settling bilateral territorial disputes with Pakistan in future. The area also helps India in keeping a hawk’s eye on Chinese activities as Beijing has vastly developed it’s infra in this region.
The ‘Trans-Karakorum tract’ or the so called ‘Shaksgam valley abutting Hunza region of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir which was ceded to China by Pakistan way back in 1963 as a quid pro quo for the former’s efforts in developing the KKH ( Karakorum highway) and many such developmental efforts would further strengthen Sino-Pakistan footprints on these strategic heights.
The new generation of Indians ought to be aware of the past trials and tribulations which have been the wont of Indian army on the highest battle field of the world that still is counting without any end in sight.
Perched at an average elevation of 17,000 (seventeen thousand feet) Indian army has even bettered the record of the world’s best armies (read US Army deployed in the Alaska region) in safeguarding the country’s territorial sovereignty.
It was in December 1983 at a meeting chaired in Pakistan by General Zia-ul-Haq in the GHQ (General headquarters) operations rooms at Rawalpindi to finalize the 10 corps plan prepared by Lt Gen Jahan Dad Khan to occupy Siachen glacier.
While the military operations directorate suggested occupation of all key passes by early march, the ‘Force command northern area’ (FCNA) commander Major General Pir Dad Khan proposed 1st May 1984 as he felt that the harshness of the terrain, the inability to induct the hepters due to weather conditions and extremely low temperatures would not allow the troops to reach their positions by March 1984.
Thereafter preparatory work was started on the procurement of super high altitude equipment and clothing, improvement of roads and tracks, recruitment of porters etc and all these tasks were supposed to be completed by April 1984.
On the Indian side alarm bells started ringing when intelligence reports trickled in about leave cancellations at FCNA, troop movement towards Khapalu, laying of new communication cables/ exchange / mobile radio stations beyond Skardu and procurement of super high altitude extreme cold weather equipment and clothing from European manufacturers by Pakistan.
All this coupled with Pakistani protest notes laying formal claim to the entire region to the west of the imaginary line joining NJ9842 with the Karakorum pass made it evident that Pakistan was planning to take some action across the Soltoro ridge.
The Indian planners reckoned that if the Pakistanis successfully occupied the strategic heights then it would be impossible to dislodge them and they would hence forth dominate the entire region.
Therefore to prevent them from altering the status quo to their advantage some kind of pre-emptive action was necessary. The preparations for such an audacious pre-emptive move was set rolling in the right earnest from Jan/Feb 1984 and all plans were tactically evaluated on 26th March 1984 in a two sided war gaming exercise codenamed ‘Walnut-cracker’ held at the corps headquarters in Srinagar where the crucial decision of heli-dropping of troops to their objective was taken.
The entire operation was being closely monitored at the northern command of the Indian army, Udhampur by Lt Gen ML Chibber , army commander, Lt Gen NS Cheema his chief of staff and Major Gen Amarjit Singh his Major General staff (MGGS).
15 Corps at Srinagar with General officer commanding (GOC) Lt Gen PN Hoon and 3 infantry division at Leh with GOC Major General Shiv Sharma were responsible for the overall conduct of the operation on the ground by Brigadier VN Channa, commander 26 sector.
Once the final approval for the operation outlining the tasks was given by the army headquarters on 31st March 1984, there was a sense of urgency at all levels of command entailed with this risky mission.
India knew that Pakistan too had kept its eyes and ears cocked up and were just around the corner to throw its dice in this high stakes game. Speed of induction, secrecy of the move with need to know based information were the key concepts on which rested the entire success or failure of this operation.
The fact that the troops were to be inducted by hepters the all importance of ‘Weather God’ was not lost on everyone involved who prayed fervently for the D-Day to go in a smooth manner.
While the Indian air force had started their reconnaissance activities in the first week of April 1984 itself, with the stocking of essentials and troop movements at Sasoma and the base camp already underway as per plan , the imported clothing and equipment for the ground troops for which Lt Gen PN Hoon had gone abroad earlier had not yet come.
The expectations were that the stuff would be in place by the second week of April 1984 for the operation to take off. Things did work out positively for the Indian side with the arrival of the much awaited specialized equipment from abroad in time and hence when the all too important date for the launch of ‘OP MEGHDOOT’ came up , all heads joined together to find out the most suitable date for this operation.
An act of historical cum mythological serendipity was presented to the planners of this high risk mission with the all-important day of Baisakhi (13th April) just around the corner that symbolized myriad values of valour, happiness, prosperity and harvesting season etc all rolled into one.
But the most important facet was the underlying sentiment of valour against tyranny symbolized by this festival as also the formation of ‘Khalsa panth’ on 13th April 1699. Since India wanted to call out the bluff of tyranny of Pakistan in a pre-emptive manner what better date than 13th of April 1984 to kick start this operation when majority of Indians would be busy in the celebrations of this harvesting festival.
Military history does provide us many examples when historical cum mythological days formed the backdrop of famous wars and operations. The famous 1973 Yom Kippur war was launched on the ‘Sabbath day’ by Israel against its bête noire, the Arabs.
‘Sabbath day ‘is considered as one of the holiest days by Jew fraternity. Be that as it may, I too was called upon to contribute my might in 1994/95 in ‘OP MEGHDOOT’ while posted in ‘Special frontier force (SFF) and had my part of action at the highest battle field of the world.
It goes to the insurmountable and undying spirit of an Indian soldier that this slice of disputed territory still forms part of India.
Though the big guns have fallen silent on both sides of the AGPL (Actual ground position line) since Nov 2003, it would do well for India to keep its powder dry and soundly rebuff the voices of various peaceniks as mentioned above.
