NEW DELHI, July 5:
India and Pakistan today agreed to prevent cross-border firing along the International Border in Jammu and Kashmir and promised to take all steps to “nip in the bud” such instances.
Both the forces will work to ensure that such ceasefire violations do not take place at all, Director General of BSF U K Bansal and chief of Pakistan Rangers Maj Gen Rizwan Akhtar told a joint press conference at the conclusion of their four- day talks here.
“We talked in detail (on the issue of cross border firing)…This should not happen. We will better the mechanism, we will ensure that those parameters that we have discussed here (during the meeting) will be told to every trooper on the border and we believe that we will have better results,” Akhtar said after signing a joint record of discussions of the meet here between the two border guarding forces.
Endorsing the Pakistan Rangers DG’s statement, Bansal said that every effort will be made to ensure that while first of all no such instance of firing along the border takes place and if at all it (ceasefire violation) happens, such an instance will be “nipped in the bud” so that it does not aggravate.
“We have existing methods of flag meetings and border talks. We will use these modalities and with the joint confidence that we both are in favour such instances should be controlled immediately. With this mutual confidence the border commanders will deal with this issue,” Bansal said.
While replying to a question on fake Indian currency being pumped into India from across the border, Akhtar denied the charge, saying Islamabad was not into such kind of activities.
“No it is not correct to say that fake currency is being pumped (from across the border)…Fake currency can be made anywhere in the world…It can be manufactured in India…The maximum consumption of fake Indian currency is in India only,” he claimed.
On issues like smuggling of narcotics across the border, both DGs said that they will work in coordination with each other to address them.
“We have discussed…There are mechanisms in place on both sides and I think if they are implemented in true letter and spirit, this (narcotics) menace or any third party taking advantage of this border (for drugs smuggling) will be controlled,” Akhtar said.
He was flanked by the Pak Rangers DG (Punjab) Maj Gen Mian Muhammad Hilal Hussain, Additional Secretary in the Pakistan Interior Ministry Najibullah Khan and other senior officials at the press meet.
Border Security Force (BSF) DG Bansal said both the forces have also decided to resolve the issue of “objectionable” plantations along the border.
“Some plantation is occurring on border which can prove detrimental to effective border management. Now it was mutually decided that both sides will take note of the plantations that have occurred on the other side and which appears objectionable to the other side. This issue will be resolved at the level of local commanders,” the BSF chief said.
Both the DGs also said they have decided to take a humanitarian view in the case of inadvertent crossers of the border that they guard.
“Treating it as a humanitarian matter, we will take every measure possible to quickly verify the intention and antecedents and identify the individual and repatriate him so that the situation does not lead to the person being arrested and then he languishing in a jail of the other country for many months. This was another positive step that was discussed,” Bansal said.
The Rangers team also said that it will, in coordination with BSF, ensure that infiltration along the border is checked.
“In coordination with each other, we will ensure that there is no infiltration from either side. Gates and fences are in Indian territory because of which access control is more (at India’s end)… More effectiveness can be there on Indian side and we will work out and are in process of working how this can be made effective,” Akhtar said.
Both the sides said the four-day talks were conducted in a “very congenial and friendly atmosphere”.
“We have had very mutual and fruitful discussions and we sincerely hope to start a new chapter in the process of border guarding on the western front as far as we are concerned,” he said. (PTI)
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