Fresh initiative: Indo-Pak bid to thaw border tension

Pakistan Rangers heads to meet Indian BSF chief

ISLAMABAD:

A delegation of senior military officials from Pakistan is expected to travel to India later this month to hold talks on tensions along the border.

In what is being seen as yet another attempt to thaw the frosty relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, the delegation will cross over the Wagah-Attari border on March 25 to kick off a five-day visit.

Rangers Sindh DG Maj-Gen Bilal Akbar and Punjab DG Maj-Gen Khan Tahir Javed Khan will hold talks with Indian Border Security Force (BSF) DG DK Pathak.

A security official said the visit was a part of the annual exchanges between the Pakistani Rangers and the BSF. The last time the two sides had met was in December 2013 when the BSF visited Lahore.

“Since then, ties [between the two countries] have been strained because of ceasefire violations along the international border and the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir and the visit kept on getting delayed,” an Indian home ministry official told the Press Trust of India.

A Pakistani official, who asked to remain anonymous, said the two sides were expected to discuss a host of issues, including the ongoing tension along the LoC and the Working Boundary (WB).

The official said the Pakistani side would push for utilising the existing mechanism to ensure the sanctity of the 2003 ceasefire agreement between the two countries.

During the recent visit of the Indian foreign secretary to Pakistan, the two countries had agreed that ensuring peace along the LoC and WB was vital.

“The two sides will want to talk and thrash out issues in a cordial manner,” said the Indian home ministry official. “The home ministry and security establishment want to honour these talks, as they are happening after a long hiatus. India will put across its statement of record of the last eight months when the border saw maximum tension due to repeated ceasefire violations.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2015.