On April 7, 2012, an avalanche struck Gayari in the eastern part of Ganche district of Gilgit-Baltistan burying a whole battalion headquarters of the

6 Northern Light Infantry (NLI) and 138 persons — mostly military — under a several metres thick cover of snow spread across more than 1,000 metres.

Such was the magnitude of the disaster and the inhospitability of the terrain that the rescuers have not been able to unearth a single body after weeks of

intense efforts, let alone making any rescue. The unit, 6 NLI, is one of the three battalions of the Pakistan army manning the Line of Actual Contact or the

Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL) along the Siachen Glacier conflict zone in the northern-most un-demarcated part of the Line of Control (LoC).**

The area is a conflict zone since 1984, when the Indian army occupied it, and Pakistani army had to react to the aggression and scramble to hold

positions across the Saltoro ridgeline to halt the Indians’ advance.

 Aarish U. Khan is a Research Analyst at the Institute of Regional Studies.