Rangers, BSF heads to meet in New Delhi tomorrow

A 16-member delegation, including members of Punjab Rangers, will embark on a four-day visit to New Delhi tomorrow

Despite a recent setback to normalisation efforts between Pakistan and India, director general (DG) of Pakistan Rangers will visit New Delhi on Wednesday to discuss issues of border management and tensions, Express News reported on Tuesday.

A 16-member delegation, including members of the Punjab Rangers, will embark on a four-day visit to New Delhi from September 9 to 13.

On August 26, the announcement for the meeting between DG Pakistan Rangers and inspector general (IG) of India’s Border Security Force (BSF) came barely a week after the last-minute cancellation of a scheduled meeting between the national security advisers of the two countries.

Read: Rangers, BSF heads to meet next month in New Delhi

The meeting which comes after talks between national security advisers of both countries were called off, is a routine meeting and not part of the understanding reached between Premier Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi in the Russian city of Ufa.

Asked about the agenda, a source said the meeting would primarily focus on issues related to border management and security along the working boundary and international border between the two countries. This means hostilities along the Line of Control (LoC) that divides the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir will not come under discussion in the meeting.

Pakistan has urged the United Nations Security Council to take notice of the escalating incidents of firing by Indian troops across the LoC in the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir and the Working Boundary in which a large number of civilians have been killed and injured.

Read: Pakistan’s concerns over Indian ceasefire violations are legitimate, says former US ambassador

According to a statement released by Pakistan’s UN mission, Indian security forces violated the ceasefire 36 times in July this year, killing five civilians and injuring six others. The number spiked significantly in August, the statement said, with some 20 civilians killed and 97 other wounded in 90 ceasefire violations by India.

Over the past several weeks, Pakistan has been raising the issue of violations by India along the LoC and WB at the UN with top officials in the Departments of Political Affairs and Peacekeeping Operations. In this connection, Lodhi briefed the senior UN leadership, including Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson, about India’s provocative actions deliberately targeting the civilian population and called for the UN Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to investigate these violations.