Sans Antony, civilian expedition to Siachen flagged off

An year after the first civilian trek to the Siachen glacier snowballed into a major controversy with Pakistan lodging a strong protest against `tourism’ in the disputed region, India formally flagged off another civilian expedition to the world’s highest battle field.

However, even before the 32 member delegation could reach base camp, the expedition has run into a minor controversy with Defence Minister AK Antony pulling out from the flagging off ceremony at the last moment.

While the defence minister was scheduled to formally flag off the expedition from Leh on Tuesday, his visit was called off at the last moment and the army had to rope in Lt Gen SS Dhillon, the Master General of Ordnance (MGO) to perform the ceremony.

Sources said that the last minute change was made after the defence ministry decided to keep the trek a low key affair. The decision to pull out Antony came days after Pakistani President Asif Zardari indicated that both countries were close to a breakthrough on both the Siachen and Sir Creek boundary dispute.

Meanwhile, the 37 member delegation – school children, DRDO scientists, mountaineering enthusiasts, media persons and defence personnel – was flagged off from the Rinchen auditorium on Tuesday morning after a seven day acclimatization phase in Leh.

Participants of the second civilian trekking expedition to the Siachen glacier will now head for the Siachen base camp for a five day training camp before proceeding for the glacial trek.

The trek, being organized by the Army Mountaineering Institute, will involve a 40 km climb up the glacier to the Kumar post. Participants, that include five female participants, will cross heights of over 18,000 feet on the way to the staging post that is used by the army for acclimatizing soldiers for postings on the Saltoro ridge.

The idea behind organizing the trek, which is being made an annual feature, is to `reaffirm India’s claim’ on the region. Despite protests by Pakistan when the glacier was opened for civilian expeditions last year, Islamabad even issued a formal protest note to New Delhi days last year, the army has made it clear that adventure tourism activities on the glacier would be made a regular feature.

In the last six months, three foreign expeditions and several joint military expeditions have taken place in the Karakoram region.