J. Choudhry/ISLAMABAD: It seems unbelievable but it is a fact that the guns became silent on both the sides of the borders of Pakistan and India on Monday (Aug 31, 2015) as the United States Security Adviser Ms Rice and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter were in Islamabad.
Ms Rice and German Foreign Minister are visiting Pakistan to discuss issues relating to security. A couple of days before their arrival, Pakistan reported killing of its eight citizens in the wake of Indian shelling in border areas of Pakistan.
As the US Security Adviser Ms Rice and German Minister Frank Walter remained busy in meetings with Pakistani officials to discuss important security issues, a pin-drop silence was seen in border areas of Pakistan and India.
Neither Pakistan reported any border violation by India and nor the Indians raised firing from Pakistan. This really seems very strange that the visit of two envoys from America and Germany was enough to silence guns on both the sides of the borders of Pakistan and India.
Let us pray that both the dignitaries extend their stay in Pakistan because the guns would remain silent as long as they are in this country.
On Aug 29, 2015, once again a 3-member team of the United Nations (UN) observers visited the Working Boundary at Kundanpur village in Sialkot on Saturday to look into the damage caused by the Indian firing at the border.
Eight Pakistanis were killed and several others wounded on Friday in unprovoked shelling of Indian forces on Pakistani border villages near Working Boundary in Sialkot’s Charwah, Harpal, Chaprar and Sucheetgarh sectors.
Punjab Rangers spokesman Major Waheed Bukhari, the United Nations Military Observers group in Pakistan observed damages and losses caused by the Indian firing. Yesterday, the UN observers had visited the Thathi Khurd village in Sucheetgarh and had met locals affected by Indian shelling. During that visit, they had sought details from them about fresh hostilities on part of the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had expressed concerns over firing along the Working Boundary. He had also expressed condolence over the loss of eight civilian lives and injuries to 47 others during the firing. Following yesterday’s firing, the Foreign Office had summoned Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan T.C.A. Raghavan and had lodged a strong protest with him “over continued LOC/working boundary violations”. Raghavan was told that India had to honour the ceasefire agreement of 2003 between the two countries.
Last week, the first high-level peace talks in years between the two country’s national security advisers were cancelled after a dispute over the agenda for those talks. In December 2013, the two countries had pledged to uphold the 2003 ceasefire accord which had been left in tatters by repeated violations that year. The truce breaches had put the nascent bilateral peace dialogue on hold.
Speaking at a seminar in Karachi last week, Cameron Munter endorsed Pakistan’s concerns of ceasefire violations by India along the Working Boundary in Sialkot and in Kashmir.
end
Weekly Corporate Ambassador 