Border guard chiefs to discuss steps to maintain ceasefire

The chiefs of border guards of India and Pakistan will discuss a proposal for coordinated patrolling and other measures to maintain ceasefire along the boundary, while a comprehensive mechanism for avoiding its violations may be considered only after Director General (Military Operations) of Indian Army meets his counterpart later.

The Director General of the Border Security Force of India and his counterpart in Pakistan Rangers will meet in New Delhi from September 9 and 13.

The discussion will focus on possible measures to maintain ceasefire along the undisputed stretch of India-Pakistan border and avert its violations, officials in New Delhi said.

The meeting between the chiefs of the border guards of the two nations were agreed upon when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his counterpart M Nawaz Sharif met at Ufa in Russia on July 10 last. It was the second in the series of engagements Modi and Sharif agreed upon in Ufa.

 But the first – a meeting between two Prime Ministers’ National Security Advisors – was called off following a bitter war of words between Islamabad and New Delhi last month.

Though cancellation of the meeting between the two Prime Ministers’ National Security Advisors cast shadow on the entire roadmap of engagements agreed upon in Ufa, New Delhi and Islamabad apparently agreed to go ahead with the BSF DG’s pre-scheduled parleys with his counterpart in Pakistan Rangers.

Sources said that the chiefs of the BSF and the Pakistan Rangers might discuss a proposal for coordinated patrolling in addition to exploring options to ensure more regular interactions at the level of the officers leading the respective border guards along the boundary. They will also discuss ways to fix responsibility of violating ceasefire.

The BSF and the Pakistan Rangers guard the undisputed stretch of the border. The armies of the two nations guard the Line of Control. The Pakistan Army and the Pakistan Rangers have increased ceasefire violation along the LoC and rest of the border over the past few years. The BSF and the Indian Army also retaliated.

Sources said that New Delhi and Islamabad were ready to explore options to pinpoint responsibility on soldiers of either side for cease-fire violations, instead of continuing blaming each other. New Delhi is ready to consider proposals from Islamabad for setting up a mechanism to maintain truce, but made it clear that it would not agree to any role by a “third party” to oversee implementation of the bilateral ceasefire.