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Indian, Pakistan troops hold flag meeting in Kashmir

Xinhua, March 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

The border guards of India and Pakistan held a commander-level flag meeting on international border (IB) in the disputed Kashmir region, officials said Thursday.

The meeting between the two sides was held to reinforce cease- fire truce and ease tension along the border.

A senior official of India's Border Security Force (BSF) Rakesh Kumar Sharma told Xinhua that the meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere and both sides showed their interest to uphold cease- fire on the borders.

"Pakistan Rangers had proposed for a sector-level commander meeting in the area and we responded, following which the meeting took place yesterday," Sharma said.

"Various issues like re-establishing communication were discussed in the meeting and it ended on a positive note with both agreeing to maintain peace and tranquillity on the border."

The meeting held at the Octroi border outpost lasted for more than two hours.

Last such meeting took place in August 2014, following which an escalation in firings was recorded along the border until February this year.

Both sides suffered civilian and troop causalities in exchange of fire and triggered migration of people from the frontier areas.

However, a relative decrease in confrontation was recorded for quite some time.

The troops of India and Pakistan intermittently exchange fire on the 720 km-long Line of Control (LoC) and 198 km International Border (IB) in Kashmir, despite an agreement in 2003 to observe cease-fire.

Though some violations have been reported on both sides, the cease-fire however remains in effect. Endi