2012 Siachen Glacier avalanche
 2012 Gayari avalanche
Location of the Gayari Sector region in relation to Pakistan
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| Time | 06:00 am PKT (01:00 UTC) |
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| Date | 7 April 2012 |
| Location | Gayari military base, Ghanche District |
| Coordinates | 35°12′49″N 76°50′08″E / 35.21355°N 076.835591°ECoordinates: 35°12′49″N 76°50′08″E / 35.21355°N 076.835591°E |
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On 7 April 2012, an avalanche hit a Pakistani military base in Gayari Sector, near the Siachen Glacier region, trapping 140 soldiers and civilian contractors under deep snow. The incident occurred at an altitude of about 13,000 feet and 180 miles northeast of Skardu (capital of Baltistan). It was the worst avalanche that the Pakistani military has experienced in the area.
On 29 May 2012, Pakistan declared that the 129 soldiers and 11 civilians were dead.
The Siachen Glacier region in the eastern Karakoram range in the Himalaya Mountains has been the site of intermittent conflict between India and Pakistan for several decades. In 1949, a ceasefire line was negotiated between the two countries in an effort to resolve the competing territorial claims of the violent Kashmir conflict. The agreement, however, did not clearly delineate Siachen as either Indian or Pakistani, and competing claims to the barren, unpopulated area began to escalate. Both sides issued numerous mountaineering permits for the area during the 1970s and 1980s, fearing that the other's expeditions indicated plans to formalise control over the glacier and its surroundings. Thus, both India and Pakistan began planning military operations to pre-empt the other's designs. On 13 April 1984, India launched Operation Meghdoot with the objective of taking control of the area, fearing it would fall into Pakistani hands. The operation was successful, and India extended its control over much of the triangle of mountainous, icy land, up to and including the passes of the Saltoro Ridge situated west of the Siachen Glacier, while Pakistan retained control over the western slopes and foothills of that ridge.
Although the Pakistani military launched numerous attempts to wrest the region from Indian control until the 2003 ceasefire, the situation on the ground changed little, and the front stagnated along the Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL), which trends northward from the northern end of the Line of Control between India and Pakistan in the Kashmir region. With troops deployed at elevations up to 6,700 metres (22,000 feet) above sea level, the glacier region has come to be known as "the world's highest battlefield". Thousands of troops from both sides remained stationed in at least 150 bases on the glacier and surrounding mountains and valleys. The simmering conflict over the glacier region costs both countries millions of dollars each year.
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Wikipedia