The second round of the two-day bi-annual talks between Pakistan Rangers and India Border Security Force (BSF) will take place Thursday (today) in Lahore to discuss different issues of confrontation between the two sides.
The host delegation will be led by Maj. Gen Umar Farooq Burki while the Indian contingent will be headed by BSF Director General KK Sharma.
A joint statement would be issued after the meeting. The Indian BSF delegation would return home in the evening.
On Wednesday in the first day of talks, the request of the Indian delegation to make the Pathankot attack as part of the agenda was rejected by Pakistan, who said that the incident was an internal matter of India.
The meeting for Pakistan-India security dialogue was convened at the Rangers Headquarters by DG Rangers Maj. General Umar Farooq Burki, who welcomed the 24-member delegation from India led by DG BSF Krishan Kumar Sharma.
Representatives from the interior ministry, the Pakistan Rangers (Sindh), Anti-Narcotics Force and the Survey of Pakistan also took part on the opening day of the discussions, the spokesman added.
The meeting was held a conducive and constructive environment while both sides hurled various accusations against each other over the tense situation at the border and the ceasefire violations. They discussed a range of issues including prevention of cross-border smuggling, swift return of people mistakenly crossing the border, and incidents of unprovoked firing at the Line of Control (LOC).
The DG-level talks between the two sides are a bi-annual affair, but several times these meetings have not taken place due to a strain in relations between the two South Asian countries. The last such meeting between the BSF and the Pakistan Rangers was held in New Delhi in September last year.
