Check the map: http://www.blythe.org/afghan-maps/kashmir_area.jpg
In 1986, Pakistani army received another setback. In an extraordinary act of valour and skill, Subedar Bana Singh captured 21,000 ft high Qaid Post from Pakistanis. India renamed the post as Bana Post and this earned Bana Singh India's first and only Paramvir Chakra after 1971. After this defeat, Benazir Bhutto tauntingly told late General Zia-ul-Haque to wear a burqa.
To dislodge India from Bilfond La, Pakistan raised an elite Special Service Group (SSG) commandos in 1987. It built up Khapalu garrison with eight thousand troops. General Pervez Mushraff, then incharge SSG, and now Pak Army Chief, spent his first soldier's night with SSG at Siachen. Pakistan launched the assault in September 1987 and suffered a crushing defeat.
Though Pakistan failed in its attempt to capture the Bilfond La pass but Indian also lost the strategic initiative. It failed to appreciate that takeover of Khapalu rather than the control of either Siachen or the Saltoro-ridge line was strategic to Indian security interests in the area.
If Khapalu had been taken, then supplying troops would have been a lot easier via the Shyok River and very much economical.
