29 September 2004	Wednesday	13 Shaban 1425

ISLAMABAD, Sept 28: High-level contacts between Pakistan and India have resulted in "dredging up some old ice" over the 20-year old Siachen dispute, well placed sources told Dawn.

An official said the proverbial melting of ice over Siachen took place in meetings between President Musharraf's principal secretary Tariq Aziz and Indian National Security Advisor JN Dixit. A formal agreement in principle on the matter had been reached in New Delhi during meetings of the foreign ministers of the two countries in early September.

Official sources said Pakistan emphasised the need for redeployment of troops to pre-Shimla positions without prejudice to each side's position on the LoC. According to the Shimla Agreement, the LoC is up to Point NJ9842 and would continue 'thence north'. Geographically, NJ9842 is at the base of the 78 kilometre-long glacier situated at a height of about 20000 feet, just ahead of Kargil.

"NJ9842 is an area of confusion and both sides need to do actual demarcation," the sources said. According to the position taken by Pakistan, the sources said, the 'actual line of contact' extends on a natural progression to north as envisaged in the Simla agreement.

However, the Indian position is slightly different as it has extended what it terms as the 'actual ground position line' to an area which should have been in Pakistan's jurisdiction had the LoC been extended beyond NJ9842 when the dividing line was drawn.

The sources said India had agreed in 1989 and 1992 to redeploy troops to the pre-1972 positions but backed out at the last moment. The talks failed after India repeated insisted that the actual ground position Line be first demarcated.

The sources said India and Pakistan had held six round of talks over Siachen since 1984 in what has been acknowledged by both sides as the costliest war in terms of military, financial and human costs. The 1998 talks over Siachen failed as the two sides got militarily engaged on Kargil.

According to a source, the current round of talks over Siachen were continuation of the discussions held as part of the composite dialogue process between New Delhi and Islamabad during which the issue was discussed at the level of defence secretaries, foreign secretaries and foreign ministers.

According to officials, the defence secretaries, Lt Gen (r) Hamid Nawaz Khan and Ajai Vikram Singh during their talks had earlier discussed a proposal for troops reduction on the Siachen glacier as part of the composite dialogue process.

Mr Aziz and Mr Dixit are said to have submitted a proposal envisaging that the two sides first mark on the maps their actual deployment positions on Siachen and then mark the position where each would like to redeploy its troops and sign the map with a provision that this was without prejudice to their respective claims. The two sides have agreed to keep up the momentum and build on the progress already achieved, said the source.