On 7 April 2012, an avalanche hit a Pakistan Army base in Gayari Sector, near the Siachen Glacier region, trapping 140 soldiers and civilian contractors under deep snow.

[2] Avalanches are known to occur frequently in the Siachen region, though casualties from them are generally low due to the fact that they normally strike remote, high-altitude "forward bases" with only a handful of troops.

Initial reports indicated that at least 100 Pakistani soldiers, including a colonel and a commander, had been trapped under an estimated 21 metres (69 feet) of snow,[10][14][15] covering an area of 1 square kilometre.

Over 150 soldiers—using helicopters, rescue dogs, and heavy machinery airlifted from the main garrison in Rawalpindi—began searching the area for the missing soldiers and contractors, with "a team of doctors and paramedics" standing by.

"[20] Pakistani Army Colonel Sher Khan, an expert in mountain warfare sent by the military to oversee the rescue operation, said that "there is no hope, there is no chance at all" for those buried under the snow, and noted that any survivors of the avalanche itself would have died within minutes from exposure to the elements.

[28] On 2 October 2013, Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani said that 133 bodies had so far been recovered from Gayari sector while search for the remaining seven continued.

However, retired Pakistani Colonel Sher Khan said that the disaster was likely a landslide caused by heavy precipitation, not an avalanche: "In this case, a huge flood of water is coming down from the sky and creates a lot of mud and loose earth on the mountain.

[25] A Pakistani newspaper article using Pakistan Meteorological Department data accused India of carrying out extensive military activities that caused the avalanche.

The article cited the melting of ice at the terminus of the Siachen Glacier and suggested that large carbon deposits from Indian military activity led to increased solar radiation as one of the prime causes of the incident.

[32] Another conspiracy theory involves the use of the Indian KALI project to melt the ice of the slope to cause the avalanche known by the codename Operation Whitewash, though no strong sources have been reported on the topic.

[2] Speaking to Al Jazeera, Shaukat Qadir, a retired Pakistani Brigadier and current political analyst, called the incident "the biggest casualty that has ever happened", and noted that more soldiers have died from the extreme elements than from combat during the entire Siachen conflict: "[T]he fact of matter is that 70 per cent of the people have died because of natural causes, and I think this is the time we ended this damn conflict, which has absolutely no explanation."

He also expressed hope that the incident would help bring an end to the Siachen conflict, and that a meeting in India, between Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, on 8 April could help "settle this issue for both sides".

[11] Zardari was ostensibly visiting India for a day to make a personal religious pilgrimage to the Sufi shrine at Ajmer Sharif, but took the opportunity to meet informally with Singh to discuss matters of state.

[35] Zardari has presided over a considerable thaw in Indo-Pakistani relations, repudiating the official Pakistani "first nuclear strike" position, granting "most favoured nation" status to India, and declaring that both countries should "freeze the issue of Kashmir for a generation".