Senior commanders from India and Pak meet for first time since Kargil War | NDTV.com
Wagah-Attari Border: For the first time since the Kargil War, a senior military commander from India crossed over to the Pakistani side of the Wagah border to discuss the simmering tension along the Line of Control (LoC) or de-facto border in Kashmir. The military commander told NDTV that meeting was constructive and both sides decided that flag meetings at Brigade level should continue.
Wagah-Attari Border: For the first time since the Kargil War, a senior military commander from India crossed over to the Pakistani side of the Wagah border to discuss the simmering tension along the Line of Control (LoC) or de-facto border in Kashmir. The military commander told NDTV that meeting was constructive and both sides decided that flag meetings at Brigade level should continue.
- India's Director General Military Operations (DGMO) Lieutenant General Vinod Bhatia met his Pakistani counterpart Major General Aamer Riaz at the Wagah-Attari border in Punjab.
- A brigadier and three lieutenant colonels from each side were also present at the meeting. "We discussed the ceasefire at LOC and other issues. We agreed to sustain the ceasefire," said Lieutenant General Vinod Bhatia after the meeting.
- The two DGMOs usually talk on a hotline every Tuesday.
- In September, Dr Manmohan Singh met Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in New York and the two leaders said they would ask their military commanders to work on restoring the ceasefire first called in 2003.
- This year saw the worst violations of that ceasefire. India has accused Pakistan's army of directly participating in deadly ambushes on Indian soldiers.
- Clashes flared along the 740-km Line of Control that divides Kashmir on August 6 when five Indian soldiers were ambushed and killed in the Poonch region.
- New Delhi blamed the attack on the Pakistan army. Islamabad denied involvement.
- In October, India said that Pakistani troops had helped a group of 30 to 40 insurgents stage the biggest incursion in Kashmir in years, linking it to a plan to push fighters into the region as foreign forces withdraw from neighbouring Afghanistan.
- India has accused Pakistan of nearly 200 violations of the 2003 cease-fire agreement this year.
- Efforts to restart stalled peace talks between the countries have been moving slowly. India wants Pakistan to demonstrate its commitment to punishing those who helped plan and execute the 26/11 attack in Mumbai in which 166 people were killed.
