Operation Meghdoot: the Siachen glacier

01A line drawn to nowhere

The ceasefire line of 1949, which became the Line of Control in 1972, was drawn only as far as a map point called NJ 9842, below the glacier, and said vaguely that it ran ‘thence north to the glaciers’. Through the 1970s Pakistan allowed foreign mountaineering expeditions into the region and its maps began to show the line running north-east to the Karakoram pass, taking in Siachen. Indian intelligence learned in early 1984 that Pakistan was preparing to occupy the Saltoro passes.

02The helicopters

The operation was named after Kalidasa’s Meghaduta, the cloud messenger. From 13 April 1984 Indian Air Force Cheetah and Mi-8 helicopters lifted small parties of the Kumaon Regiment and the Ladakh Scouts, already trained on the glacier, onto the heights. Within days they held Bilafond La and Sia La, and later Gyong La, the main passes of the Saltoro ridge. When Pakistani troops arrived they found the crest taken.

03Holding the ice

The fighting that followed went on for years at heights above 18,000 feet. In 1987 Naib Subedar Bana Singh of the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry led the capture of a Pakistani post at about 21,000 feet, renamed Bana Top, and won the Param Vir Chakra. Far more soldiers have been lost to cold, avalanches and altitude than to enemy fire. A ceasefire has held since 2003, and India still keeps its posts on the ridge.