Pak, India mull mechanism on border security

NEW DELHI—Pakistan and India have decided to work out mechanisms to repatriate inadvertent border crossers within 24 hours This was decided in a four-day meeting held between Commanders of Pakistan Rangers and Indian Border Security Force in Chandigarh.
Maj. Gen. Muhammad Haroon Aslam, Director General Rangers led Pakistani side while Additional Director General (West) G S Gill of Indian Border Security represented his side at the talks. Pakistan’s delegation included Major General Liaqat Ali, Director General, Pakistani Rangers (Sindh) and other senior officers of the Rangers and Survey of Pakistan.
Addressing a joint Press conference with Major General Muhammad Haroon Aslam in Chandigarh at the end of the talks on Saturday, G S Gill said it was decided to make efforts to return inadvertent crossers of each other’s country immediately, ideally within 24 hours, to mitigate suffering of the families.
Maj. Gen. Haroon Aslam said the two sides have agreed to “expedite repatriation of inadvertent border crossers to minimise the miseries of the families of those prisoners who continue to remain in jails of India and Pakistan due to lengthy and complicated repatriation procedures.”
It was decided that local commanders will be encouraged to mutually resolve minor issues related to border management, media reports from Chandigarh said. Awareness among border population would be improved to understand the alignment of International Boundary and to uphold its sanctity to avoid inadvertent crossings, Gill said.
Referring to defence-related construction works on the border, Gill said both sides assured to extend full cooperation by sensitising their field commanders to maintain sanctity of International Boundary. The issues relating to old cases of Indian nationals in each other’s jails, human and narcotics trafficking and the need for sharing of information and co-operation also came under discussion during the meeting, he said. Both sides also exchanged statements on issues which they had agreed during the meeting.
The NWFP Caretaker Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Justice (Retd) Mian Muhammad Ajmal has said that Pak-India Judicial Committee would continue its struggle for the release of arrested men, women and children so that they could be repatriated to their respective countries.
Speaking at a reception-cum-farewell party hosted in his honor by his staff at Civil Secretariat Peshawar on Saturday, he told that the lists of civilian prisoners of both the countries would mutually be exchanged on March 31, 2008 through its Higher Commissioner.
He further informed that a delegation of Indian Judicial Committee would undertake a visit to Pakistan on April 8, 2008 where the delegation would search out its prisoners in various jails of Pakistan.
He maintained that the civilian prisoners who had not completed their sentences would also be released and repatriated to their homelands on humanitarian grounds, including the fishermen of both countries who mistakenly crossed the sea borders of each country and also the prisoners involved in minor cases like visa matters.
He regretted that the government of Pakistan had freed the Indian prisoners as goodwill gesture but India had not reciprocated the same spirit so far. The Minister on this occasion appreciated the capabilities of his staff in fulfilling officials obligations and responsibilities.
A 10-member delegation of former Indian diplomats has left here for Islamabad as part of bilateral track two efforts towards building friendship with Pakistan.
Led by Ishrat Aziz, president of the Association of Indian Diplomats (AID), the delegation left Friday night.
They are scheduled to meet Pakistan’s foreign secretary, chairman of the senate foreign relations committee, and governor of Punjab and possibly some members of the newly elected government.
The visit is being viewed as a “new contact” in the plethora of Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) already under way towards creating good diplomatic and economic relations.
The visit is at the invitation of the Association of Former Diplomats (AFA) of Pakistan, which had sent a delegation to India in 2005.

—Agencies