NEW DELHI, Sept 13: The Indian army plans to take tourists trekking on a disputed glacier that has long been a high-altitude battlefield occupied only by Indian and Pakistani troops, an army official said Thursday.

Army spokesman S.K. Sakhuja said that the first group of trekkers would set off later this month for the 6,300-metre high Siachen glacier, where cold and altitude have claimed more lives than actual combat.

The first group of 20 trekkers will include eight or nine Indian civilians, reports said, although the army may eventually start taking foreigners.

The group will first have to spend around 10 days acclimatising in Leh, a high-altitude town in the far northern region of Ladakh.

“The glacier can become a major tourist attraction,” a senior army officer told the Indian Express newspaper.

“Since the ceasefire agreement with Pakistan things have been safer and it is possible to hold such activities.”—AFP