India, Pak DGMOs hold talks, agree to silence guns

New Delhi: With booming guns across the India-Pakistan border becoming more the norm than being an exception in recent weeks, leading to casualties, including that of civilians, on both sides — 36 deaths in India and 28 in Pakistan in 2018 — it took about seven minutes in a hotline telephonic talk between the directors-general of military operations (DGMOs) of the two neighbours to defuse the situation and agree to enforce the ceasefire agreement signed in 2003.

This year itself, a huge jump in the number and intensity of cross border firings — 1,088 by Pakistan and 1,088 by India — had rendered the 2003 India-Pakistan pact virtually redundant. A high-ranked Indian Army official told this newspaper: “At 6pm on Tuesday, a phone call came from the Pakistani Army requesting a DGMO-level talk on the hotline. And whenever such a request comes in from the Pakistan DGMO, we never refuse. The talks not exceeding 7 minutes centred on ushering peace on the border”.

Lieutenant General Anil Chauhan is the Indian DGMO while his Pak counterpart is Major General Sahir Shamshad Mirza. An Army release said the DGMOs reviewed the situation along the LoC and IB.

Experts skeptical about Pak overture 

With booming guns across the Indo-Pak border becoming more of a norm rather than an exception in recent weeks leading to casualties including civilians and it took about 7 minutes of a telephonic talk between the director-generals of military operations to defuse the situation. Military strategy expert Lt Gen (retd) PC Katoch is skeptical about the Pak overture. “This offer was expected. Pakistan is talking about the ceasefire now because of the impending general elections in July. If they are really sincere on peace, why is infiltration and the proxy war from across the border still continuing?”