Pakistan Rangers to meet Rajnath Singh

By NewsGram Staff Writer

New Delhi: A delegation of Pakistan Rangers, who are on a visit to India for DG level talks, will meet Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday.

Sources said that the Pakistani delegation would discuss with the home minister about the first day of talks that took place between border forces of India and Pakistan. The talks concluded on a positive note with both sides agreeing to take steps to ensure peace on the border.

"Pakistan Rangers led by Maj.Gen. Umar Farooq Burki will meet home minister between 11 a.m. and 11.50 a.m.," an official was quoted as saying.

The talks, between Border Security Force (BSF) of India led by Director General D.K. Pathak and Pakistan Rangers led by Maj.Gen. Burki, also focused on ceasefire violations.

An accord will be signed between the two sides on Saturday, the last day of the director general-level talks.

The last BSF-Pakistan Rangers meeting was held on December 24-28, 2013 in Lahore.

The talks assume special significance as earlier scheduled talks between the national security advisers of India and Pakistan was called off following disagreement over the discussion of the Kashmir issue.

Earlier, the decision for reviving the meeting was taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif at their meeting in Ufa.

It was envisaged in the meeting that the top leadership of both the border guarding forces will meet periodically and discuss issues of relevance to both the forces.

Issues requiring coordinated efforts like dealing with drug menace, smuggling, simultaneous coordinated patrolling, timely exchange of information etc. were to form the core of discussions.

After the meeting in Ufa, there have been over 100 ceasefire violations since Modi and Sharif met in Ufa. Till June, there have been 199 ceasefire violations by Pakistan.

Official figures reveal that around 430 ceasefire violations occurred on the international border while 153 violations were reported on the LoC in 2014. In 2013, the number was at 347.

In August, there was at least one incident of sniper firing that killed a soldier while two similar incidents occurred in July.

(With inputs from IANS)