Islamabad, June 13
Giving a cold response to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement favouring the conversion of the Siachen glacier into a peace mountain, Pakistan today maintained its stand that India vacate its “aggression” and withdraw its troops to positions held at the time of 1972 Simla Agreement.

“India as you know committed aggression on Siachen in 1983. India has to vacate that aggression in order to make Siachen a peaceful area. We hope following the Prime Minister's statement, India would unconditionally withdraw its aggression on the basis of past agreements,” Foreign Office spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani told a media briefing.

He said the Siachen “aggression” is a violation of 1948 Karachi agreement as well as the 1972 Simla agreement.

“We hope the statement reflects a change in the Indian position. Pakistan has always maintained that the Siachen issue should be resolved peacefully between India and Pakistan,” he said.

While visiting the world’s highest battlefield, Dr Manmohan Singh said yesterday that time has to make efforts to convert Siachen into a “peace mountain” but asserted that there could be “no redrawing of boundaries” in the search for peace as it related to the country’s security and prestige.