New Delhi: The DGMOs of India and Pakistan will meet on Tuesday after 14 years at India-Pakistan Wagah border in Punjab. Lt General Vinod Bhatia is expected to cross over to Pakistan at the Wagah border to hold discussions with his Pakistani counterpart Major General Amir Riaz.
On the agenda is how to reduce tension along the Line of Control. The two will discuss ways of ensuring ceasefire on the LoC. Lt General Bhatia is expected to register his protest over the cross-border raids.
The meeting between the two DGMOs was proposed when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York on September 29.
During the meeting, the Indian side is expected to take up for discussion the cross-border raids by Pakistani troops in this year in which over 7 Indian troops have been killed. High tension prevailed during the two incidents in January and August this year and the Indian Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh had later stated that the Indian side reserved the right to retaliate at the time and place of its choosing.
To defuse the tension on the LoC and other places along their boundary, the two DGMOs talk to each other on Tuesdays over a hotline. The two sides signed an agreement in 2003 to maintain ceasefire along the LoC and the Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL) in Siachen.
On September 29, Singh and Sharif agreed on a meeting between the DGMOs during their talks on the margins of the UN General Assembly meet in New York. The premiers felt a meeting between the top Army officers would help reduce tension on the LoC that were at a peak following the killing of five Indian soldiers in an attack in August amid a series of ceasefire violations by Pakistan.
However, the meeting was not scheduled and both sides did not give reasons for the delay.
(With additional information from PTI)
Comments
0 comment