Pak seeks regular DGMO meet, India says 'no'

Meetings between the director-generals of military operations (DGMOs) of India and Pakistan will not be a regular, institutionalised practice even though Islamabad has been pressing for such a status for the meetings for a long time.

Following the talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Shari at Ufa in Russia on Friday. foreign secretaries from both countries announced that the DGMOs would sit across the table to discuss the border issues.

The discussions between the two army officers would be preceded by a meeting between the director generals of the Border Security Force and Pakistan Rangers.

The two DGMOs speak every week using a hot line but  they rarely come face to face. It had happened after the Kargil War.

Following an escalation in the ceasefire violation in Jammu and Kashmir, the then DGMO Lt Gen Vinod Bhatia met his Pakistani counterpart Maj Gen Aamer Riaz at Wagha on December 24, 2013,  two officers decided to hold more brigade-level flag meetings to reduce the tension along the Line of Control and international border.

The interaction between the two DGMOs was followed by  a temporary lull in the cease- fire violation along the international border but cross border firing resumed after some time and continued unabated.

In the last two years, there has been a sharp increase in ceasefire violations, mostly in the Jammu region, which was considered as the settled boundary.

As many as 410 incidents of cross-border violations were recorded in 2014 as against 148 in 2013 and 21 in 2012. The Indian side believes that the underlying motive behind the Pakistani demand is to use the platform to lobby for framing the ground rules of ceasefire, which both nations are maintaining since November 2003, as the ceasefire agreement lacks clarity.