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India, Pakistan DGMOs meet for first time since Kargil War

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ANI Wagah-Attari Border
Last Updated : Dec 24 2013 | 4:35 PM IST

Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of India and Pakistan met on the Pakistan side of the Wagah Border on Tuesday to discuss ways to reduce tension along the Line of Control (LoC) that separates the two countries.

It was the first time since the 1999 Kargil War, that a senior Indian military commander crossed over to Pakistan.

India's Director General Military Operations (DGMO) Lieutenant General Vinod Bhatia met his Pakistani counterpart Major General Aamer Riaz. A brigadier and three lieutenant colonels from each side were also present at the meeting.

"We discussed the ceasefire at LOC and other issues. We agreed to sustain the ceasefire," said Lieutenant General Bhatia after the meeting.

The two DGMOs usually talk on a hotline every Tuesday.

In September, Dr Manmohan Singh met Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in New York and the two leaders said they would ask their respective DGMO's to work towards restoring the ceasefire first called in 2003.

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The year 2013 has seen the worst violations of that ceasefire. In January this year, two soldiers were killed and mutilated.Clashes flared along the 740-km Line of Control that divides Kashmir on August 6 when five Indian soldiers were ambushed and killed in the Poonch region.

In October, India said that Pakistani troops had helped a group of 30 to 40 insurgents stage the biggest incursion in Kashmir in years, linking it to a plan to push fighters into the region as foreign forces withdraw from neighbouring Afghanistan.

India has accused Pakistan of nearly 200 violations of the 2003 cease-fire agreement this year, a charge Pakistan has denied.

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First Published: Dec 24 2013 | 4:31 PM IST

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