India rejects Pakistan proposal to include diplomats in militaries meet

Pakistan said Friday that India has rejected its request to include the Foreign Ministry officials of the two countries in the meeting of senior military officials next week to ensure a ceasefire along the Line of Control, which divides the two countries in the disputed Kashmir region. The Director General Military Operations (DGMOs) of Pakistan and his Indian counterpart are scheduled to meet on Dec. 24 to strengthen the mechanisms to ensure ceasefire on the Line of Control. It would be the first face-to-face meeting of senior military officials during the recent tensions. The Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Friday that Pakistan had proposed the foreign ministry officials should be included in the talks to make it broadbased. "It was our desire to include the two Foreign Offices in the DG MOs meeting to make it broader based, but this stand is not acceptable to India,"the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Ms. Tasnim Aslam Aslam said. "For the time being, this meeting will be between the DG MOs but our proposal is still on the table,"she told her weekly press briefing. She said the DG MOs had been speaking to each other and they have had telephone conversations. "It was not back channel diplomacy but there was agreement between the two countries that we need to meet at this level to sort out the issues taking place on the LoC. Keeping that in mind, our Director General Military Operations invited his Indian counterpart and his invitation was accepted,"she said. The meeting was called following the exchange of firing between troops of the two countries along the LoC in recent months. Pakistan and India routinely accuse each other of launching deadly attacks on the other side and violating the 2003 ceasefire along the LoC. Guns had been relatively silent along the LoC since the ceasefire. However, the recent escalation have once again cast doubt over the fragile ceasefire and the bilateral composite dialogue process. Prime ministers of the two countries met in New York in September and decided to ask their military officials to meet and discuss implementation of the ceasefire agreement.