More than a decade after A.P.J. Abdul Kalam became the first President to visit the Siachen glacier, President Ram Nath Kovind will visit the area on Thursday.
A military spokesperson said the President “...will visit the Siachen Base Camp tomorrow [Thursday] and interact with soldiers posted there.”
He will also visit the Kumar Post. In the first week of April 2004, Kalam made history by becoming the first Indian President to visit the heavily militarised Siachen glacier. From the Thoise airbase, he took a helicopter to the base camp situated at over 18,000 feet.
Siachen has been peaceful ever since India and Pakistan entered into a ceasefire in November 2003, but remains a treacherous terrain, and casualties are not rare here even in times of peace.
According to a statement tabled in Parliament in December 2015, 869 soldiers have lost their lives in the glacier because of climatic conditions.
Siachen has been militarised since 1984, when both countries raced to occupy commanding heights.
