Maj Gen Amir Riaz, DGMO Pakistan Army receiving his counter part, DGMO Indian Army Lt Gen Vinod Bhatia on arrival at Wagha Border on December 24, 2013. PHOTO: ISPR.GOV.PK
DGMO Major General Amir Riaz had invited his Indian counterpart Lieutenant General Vinod Bhatia for a meeting today to “strengthen the mechanisms to ensure ceasefire on the LoC,” read a statement issued by the foreign ministry on December 17.
This was the first time that DGMOs from the two nuclear-armed neighbours held face-to-face talks. The meeting lasted for around two hours.
One brigadier from each side and three lieutenant colonels were also present at the meeting.
“The meeting is taking place in a good atmosphere,” said the Director General of Inter Services Public Relations (DG-ISPR).
Decision for the meeting of DGMOs to take place was taken on a political level, he further added.
Earlier, both countries had agreed to arrange a meeting of their DGMOs after talks between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York in September.
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@polpot - "Smiles on both faces seem sincere. I hope the outcome is also positive"
Their smiles are useless. The smiles on the faces of their bosses in Rawalpindi and Delhi that matter.
@ roadkashehzada (Rhodes scholar?)
I knew Pakistani history curriculum is warped but did not expect it to be so woeful. But I must admit that it's pleasing to see more educated comments from my cousins across the border too. Take a peek at the latest genome mapping research by Dr. Reich at Harvard. Of course, there will be those that will see CIA or RAW's hidden hand or that it wasn't in the Book or whatever. No need to convert flat-earthers...Although the sample doesn't include Pakistani populations, any educated person will know that there is no difference. I must emphasize that I'm not proposing for a united "greater India" or anything; Pakistan is it own independent country and I respect that. Enjoy the research. Our resident Rhodes Scholar perhaps won't understand or care. He should go back to school and read some history.
http://www.harappadna.org/2012/06/ani-asi-admixture-dating/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2842210/
Pakistani who think Indians want Akhand Bharat have this unfounded fear. As a goodwill gesture to prove that we have no such intention, we will be more than happy to send, arranging safe transportation for all of your Muslim brothers and sisters in India to Pakistan via Punjab and Rajasthan border. True followers of Jinnah should not be afraid of honring him by accepting this gift from Indians and must ask their government to take all of the muslim people and their children who got lost in partition.
Good initiative. Both sides are tired of this war/hatred.
Does the Pakistani General have a paunch????? Not very becoming of an officer and a gentleman. Get onto to a treadmill sir!!!!
@roadkashehzada: Just reading Aitzaz Ahsan's delusional book, The Indus Saga and the Making of Pakistan, does not make you an expert, rather it makes you sound silly.
@roadkashehzada : What a load of baloney !! you guys seriously need to rehash your history books (that is if you have any reference to any other religion at all).
Buddhism was preached by Siddhartha the prince of Lumbini , a small town on the Nepal - India border which (along with Mahavira, the principal lord of the Jains, who was from Vaishali,present day Bihar state of India) is nearer to the Gangetic plains than the Indus Valley civilisation (in fact the were a millenium years apart).
As per some historians, the Indus valley people started fading/got annhillated/got mixed with the Aryan races who arrived from the Caspian sea area and settled in North West India stretching from Pakistani Punjab , Swat and onto the Gangetic plain were they composed the Vedas , the earliest scriptures of the Hindus.
There is another school of thought that that the Dravidian races in South India were genetically very similar to the Indus valley people and hence were the original indigenous people of the sub continent. Not many people and I think even many Pakistanis know that the Brahui/Brohi tribe (like the Mengals, Miwanis etc.) of Baluchistan speak a language which is similar to Dravidian languages of South India. So are these people of Pakistan the only representative of the original Indus Valley Civilisation ?
Gosh , why is an Indian telling you all this . At the end it you will only turn and troll me into smithereens with your hateful rhetorics,
@Ayodhya Yogi: What progress have you made that is so much better than that in Pakistan?
@roadkashehzada: Indus valley civilization is far older than your ancestors from Saudia Arabia and Central Asia who arrived here as plunders and invaders. The IVC belongs to the Hindus. Learn history for Allah's sake. Let me ask you one question: What about the millions of Hindus who had lived here for centuries before they had to leave in 1947. Which category do you put them in?
@Aliya: Your racist attitude is the reason the "dark" Bengali shunned your "fairer" skin tone!!! We Pakistanis are obsessed with the color of one's skin. Amazing!
Meanwhile, when we go to a western country, the goras label all South Asians as "Pakis." Your so-called fair color does not help you there. You get lumped with everybody else. Sorry ...
Pakistanis need some lessons in History and religion. For overwhelming majority Hindus , Buddhism , Jainism, Sikhism are branches of Hinduism. It's common in Hindu homes to find a bust of Siddhartha, the son of a Hindu king , who founded Buddhism or a picture of Guru Nanek, the founder of Sikhism.
The Pakis will be fairer taller and brawnier having Arab and Persian blood. That is why theyr are also more brainless and violent. The difference betwen the heritages is apparent by the progress both have made since independence....do we need to say more ?
@roadkashehzada: hahaha...Funniest comment of the century...lol Ganges and Yumna civilisation??? Have you been living under a cave or is this the history that is being taught in your Madrassa.? FYI, Indus valley civilization extended from Baluchistan in the west to Uttar Pradesh in the east to Maharashtra to the south AND Hinduism traces its root from Indus Vally Civilization. The word Hindu is derived from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, the historic local name for the Indus River in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. Indus Vally Civilization belongs to us Indians, get your facts right and there was no such civilization called Ganges and Yumna civilization. Just because you Pakistani's are invaded and converted multiple times by different invaders does not make you a different race..lmao And we Indians don't want any united India, we don't want 180 million polio infected extremist Pakistani's to be a part of India. PERIOD!!
Hey guys, quit talking about skin colour, I have seen and met some Indians at Kansas State University who were beautiful people and specially their women, I would have married one if one of those beauties would have given me a time of the day. Seriously, it is good to have some kind of rapour between these Army Generals and what pol pot has said ,"Friendship is optional but peace is not." By the way these smiles are not fake, they really look genuine and why should it not be.
@objective observer: LOL, how true, well he can't be my cousin since I am from Mardan.
@polpot: I could have not said it better, thank you.
@roadkashehzada: hahaha...Funnies comment of the century...lol Ganges and Yumna civilisation??? Have you been living under a cave or is this the history that is being taught in your Madrassa.? FYI, Indus valley civilization extended from Baluchistan in the west to Uttar Pradesh in the east to Maharashtra to the south AND Hinduism traces its root from Indus Vally Civilization. The word Hindu is derived from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, the historic local name for the Indus River in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. Indus Vally Civilization belongs to us Indians, get your facts right and there was no such civilization called Ganges and Yumna civilization. Just because you Pakistani's are invaded and converted multiple times by different invaders does not make you a different race..lmao And we Indians don't want any united India, we don't want 180 million polio infected extremist Pakistani's to be a part of India. PERIOD!!
it looks like indian guy is in pain.
@Realist:
Yes many Hindu embraced Islam,Hindua Muslim both have similarity in features, skin color, language, food,life style, and so many things. This is not the time to criticise ,let see wthat will be theout put of this face-to-face meeting and hand shacking. We are interested only peace from top to bottom.
Its surreal to be talking about complexions when we are facing real scary and existential threats...the discussion should be more in line with this
@Bbb "Why do you indians feel inferior if you are blessed with dark skin?? Nothing racist about it"
Who's felling "inferior"?! You gotta be kidding! I think you misunderstood the point. Aliya is the first one to bring out the skin color. Where is the case to think of the color of the skin at all. Perhaps Aliya is a victim of a madrassah 'education'. She doesn't know that both these generals are Punjabi and there is probably no difference in their genome. Just that a few centuries ago (at most) one of the general's ancestors changed religions. Get it?
@Aliya:
They might be distant cousins even.
Bbb We do not feel inferior but unfortunately u Pakistanis feel u r more fairer which is not the case as many Pakistanis r Dark.Can u apply the same yardstick for blacks and say nothing racist about it.So its a joke if u consider urself as Fair
I was wondering what and who would comment on this news. I was not far off. Barring first three rest is only Aliya. We need to grow up.
solid handshake and smile on face (no matter if its hurting to the core). sums up india pakistan relations.
@Aliya's comment was silly, and @Uza Syed's is not a realistic portrayal either... we have a lot of shared ancestry and a lot of different ancestry too. Let's leave it at that and co-exist. Peace!
about complxion (race) of pakistan and india.... we are not one race. indus valley civilisation always had a different character from genges and yumna civilisation. check the ruins, indus valley is home to budhhism (monotheist) and genges is hinduism (polythiest). thats why in pakistan there are more budhhist sites than fragmented/isolated sites of hinduism. apart from old history, we might share complexion with border region indians but pakistanis are totally different south and central india. difference between indians and pakistanis is wider than difference between french and british, emirati and saudi, american and canadian. lets be forward looking and stop questioning rationale of existance of pakistan and more importantly stop living in dreams of united india.
Smiles on both faces seem sincere ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I hope the outcome is also positive.
@yan: Why do you indians feel inferior if you are blessed with dark skin?? Nothing racist about it
@Aliya: Considering our common ancestry, why should be any difference in their sepia, unless you suspect pollution due to being entry point to India by all sorts of invaders and us being right there in their way.
@Aliya Racist
@Aliya: Why? has he been drinking mercury? Get real!
I was expecting the Pakistani DGMO to be a lot fairer than his Indian counterpart. They look so similar (skin tone)
So the new military leadership in Pakistan will certainly bring positive and fruitful change.
What is going to change because of this meeting? Pakistan can't be trusted to keep its word and India can't be trusted to stay its hand.
We have to hope for better from both sides not only from Pakistan.....
Stop all these farce.
The Indo Pak DGMOs are meeting after 14 years..post Kargil +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I hope that the two DGMOs are concious of the responsibility that they carry.....they can implement simple yet effective measures for peace on the loc. Friendship is optional but peace is not.