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To say that what follows is pure fiction, is insulting those who lost their lives, finding out otherwise. But to be more accurate, is to endanger those who are still battling for theirs.ROPEBy Capt Raghu RamanChandigarh. The last link between madness and sanity. I arrived in the late hours of the night. It was bitterly cold. Usually is, this time of the year. Clear sky though. They told me there was a confirmed flight next morning with my name on the manifest. There was nothing to do but to kill the night. The bar at 204 transit mess is a...

And, wonders whether what was bought with blood and guts will be bartered for a later regret. On a moonless night in Siachen, in May 1987, 2nd Lt Rajiv Pande’s 13-man patrol silently climbed towards Quaid Post, a 21,153-ft pinnacle near the crucial pass of Bilafond La, held by 17 Pakistani soldiers. Quaid had to be captured and Pande was fixing ropes on the near-vertical, 1,500-ft ice wall just below the post, to assist a larger follow-on force in making a physical assault. As the jawans fixed the ropes, gasping for breath in that oxygen-depleted altitude, Pak sentries just a...

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan and India began talks on a military stand-off over a Kashmir glacier, with Islamabad expected to push for a troop withdrawal to positions both sides held more than three decades ago. The neighbours' defence secretaries were to discuss the 21,000-foot (6,363-metre) Siachen glacier, dubbed the world's highest battlefield, during a two-day meeting in the Pakistani capital as part of an ongoing peace process. The dispute over Siachen, which towers above India, Pakistan and China, has left more soldiers dead from extreme cold than from bullets. Analysts say the ice field lost its strategic value when India...