Army Position on Siachen with Govt: JJ

New Delhi, Jan 12 (UNI) Ahead of External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee's maiden visit to Pakistan, the Indian Army maintains that -- given the terrorism-ridden scenario in the northern state -- demilitarisation of Jammu&Kashmir would be fatal.

Sources in the Army Headquarters here cautioned against demilitarisation of J&K as part of any peace arrangement with Pakistan reasoning that it would dilute New Delhi's control over the state -- beset by insurgency for the past 15 years.

Significantly, the Army's views have in their backdrop Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf's recent proposal for demilitarisation of Kashmir as part of a four-point solution to the long-festering problem. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, incidentally, has welcomed the Pakistani President's ideas saying they contributed to the ongoing thought process and the bilateral Confidence Building Measures.

The Army has also expressed serious reservations on the Siachen demilitarisation proposal that was debated by the senior leadership of the government sometime ago. The government decided against taking up the issue when opposition parties backed the position of the Armed Forces.

The Army position was reiterated -- in muted terms -- by its Chief Gen JJ Singh while addressing an Army Day-eve Media Interaction here today.

''Our position has been conveyed to the Government... the issue is being decided at the highest political level'', cryptically said the normally verbose Army Chief.

The Army is committed to redeployment of troops only if both sides agreed on the methods for authentication of current troop positions.

This position has also been conveyed by India at the various rounds of talks held between the two erstwhile warring neighbours.

Pakistan, on the other hand, insists on the withdrawal of troops to the pre-1984 position as per the 1989 ''agreement'' without any pre-conditions -- Pakistan claims that ''India backed out of the pact at the last minute''.

The 740KM long Line of Control in Kashmir terminates at its northern end at a point called NJ 9842 in the high Himalayas. Beyond this lies a 76 km-long glacial region -- Siachen -- which has been contested between India and Pakistan since 1984.

UNI