BSF-Rangers meet: India communicates dates for September talks, Pakistan yet to share agenda

NEW DELHI: A day after India and Pakistan called off the national security adviser-level talks, the Border Security Force on Sunday said the meeting between the BSF director general and his Pakistani counterpart had also come under a cloud. While India has communicated September 9-13 as the dates for the meeting, Pakistan is yet to share the agenda for the talks between the border forces.

Officials said the International Border had not witnessed any incident of firing from the other side for the past 48 hours, in contrast to 91 ceasefire violations reported along the IB and Line of Control since the two sides agreed to the NSA-level talks at the meeting of prime ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif at Ufa in Russia last month.

Follow @ETDefence Twitter handle for comprehensive coverage on other buzzing Defence stories

The excessive ceasefire violations indicated Pakistan’s provocation was aimed at derailment of the peace talks, officials said. According to the BSF, there were no reports of small ‘skirmishes’ by Pakistan Rangers or any infiltration attempts in the past two days.



BSF has been maintaining high vigil along the border since August 10 due to Independence Day celebrations and the NSA-level talks that were scheduled for August 23 before being called off a day before.

Though the meeting of the director generals of BSF and Pakistan Rangers was supposed to be independent of the Ufa agreement, the cancellation of NSA-level talks has injected uncertainty into the talks between the border forces.

The two sides were earlier scheduled to meet on July 18. However, Pakistan sought fresh dates for the meeting as the festival of Id fell on July 18 and it was decided that the meeting will take place on September 9.

BSF officials said that they hoped that Pak Rangers will turn up for the meeting since the issue is limited to ceasefire violations and infiltration.

India will also take up the case of captured militant Mohammad Naveed and three others who managed to infiltrate from Kashmir and carried out attack on BSF troops in Udhampur.

In the past one year, there has been a series of unprovoked firings as India toughened its stance against violation of ceasefire by Pak Rangers. This happened apparently because BSF objected to a makeshift construction on the border which was eventually destroyed in the retaliation.