India backs DGMOs for talks over Pak border violations
The initiative had come in the backdrop of the Indian army reporting a concerted attempt by Pakistan army backed militants to infiltrate into the country in north Kashmir's Keran sector, a charge that Islamabad was quick to brush aside.
India is inclined to encourage the two key army officers - Directors General of Military Operations - in Delhi and Islamabad to hold one-to-one meetings to restore peace along the border rather than jump to any conclusions about the recent ceasefire violations.
"The DGMOs are in touch with each other. It is for them to find a way to do the job that they have been tasked to do," official sources accompanying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on his back-to-back visits to Russia and China said in Moscow.
New Delhi and Islamabad had decided to get the DGMOs - who speak every Tuesday as part of an institutional mechanism - to sit across the table after Singh and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif met in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last month. Such interactions usually take place in the vicinity of a border post.
The initiative had come in the backdrop of the Indian army reporting a concerted attempt by Pakistan army backed militants to infiltrate into the country in north Kashmir's Keran sector, a charge that the defence establishment in Islamabad was quick to brush aside. Also, there were conflicting reports on the extent and nature of the intrusions.
On Saturday, Border Security Force guards bore the brunt of ceasefire violations along the International Border.
The DGMO-level talks have not happened so far, but official sources said both sides were working towards it.
In the meantime, New Delhi is going to make a full-fledged assessment of the ceasefire violations.
It was common for the number of attempted infiltrations to spike before the onset of winters. Pakistani forces often give the infiltrators covering fire if need be.
"It needs to be seen if the ceasefire violations are linked to the intrusion attempts," said a government source.
"We need to see how the pattern has changed and if the nature of the violations has changed," the source said, adding that New Delhi will "draw conclusions" about Pakistan's behaviour in light of this analysis.
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