Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Dec 11: The Director Generals of Military Operations (DGMOs) level talks, proposed by the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan in September end during their dialogue on the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly, have failed to take off due to reported reluctance by Pakistan to discuss some hard questions on infiltration and ceasefire violations by Pakistan Army in Jammu and Kashmir and movement of militants along the Line of Control (LoC).
“There has been no response from Pakistan on the DGMO level talks agreed in a meeting between Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan Dr Manmohan Singh and Nawaz Sharief in September end at United States on the sidelines of United National General Assembly. The meeting was proposed to discuss frequent ceasefire violations and attempts to push militants into Jammu and Kashmir,” official sources said, adding though the ceasefire violations and infiltration attempts have considerably come down when the talks were proposed, the Army had prepared a tough questionnaire for Pakistan with pictorial evidences for discussions during the proposed meeting.
“We had very strong evidence with us regarding ceasefire violations, targeting civil areas and facilitating infiltration attempts by Pakistan Army along the LoC as well as International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir. The Pakistan Army had no answer to this. That was the reason that they were shying away from the meeting,” sources said.
Though the DGMOs of India and Pakistan hold telephonic talks on hotline every Tuesday, they hadn’t met face-to-face for the past 14 years. The last time they had met was in 1999 after the Kargil war.
Sources said there was little possibility of DGMO level talks between the two countries though such an important meeting hasn’t been completely ruled out as Pakistan Government and Army were well aware that India was equipped with strong evidence of ceasefire violations, firing in villages on both LoC and IB and infiltration attempts by the militants back by Pakistani troops especially in the months of August and September this year.
“Pakistan DGMO has no answer to Indian questions, which was well known to Nawaz Sharif Government as well as Pakistan Army. That was the major reason that Pakistan was hesitating from the DGMO level talks, ” sources said but admitted that ceasefire violations and infiltration attempts from Pakistan have come down to a large extent since October both on the LoC and IB in Jammu and Kashmir.
Sources, however, confirmed that there was no proposal from Islamabad yet on the DGMO-level talks to discuss tensions along the LoC, which had assumed alarming proportions in the months of August and September this year with the killing of five Indian soldiers in Sarla battalion area at Chakan-Da-Bagh in Poonch sector on the intervening night of August 4 and 5.
Shortly after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif met in New York in September-end, a senior Pakistani diplomat had declared that the DGMOs would meet “within a week.” However, despite the lapse of more than two months after the announcement, the meeting hasn’t matured due to reluctance on the part of Pakistan. India was, however, fully prepared for talks and was only awaiting Pakistan’s response on date for talks, sources said.
The Army is closely monitoring the situation along the LoC with infiltration attempts likely to peak over the next few weeks as terrorists make last-ditch efforts to sneak into Jammu and Kashmir before snow sets in. Even in the plains, Pakistan wants to take advantage of foggy weather conditions to push militants but was aware about the alertness being maintained by Army and BSF.
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