Indian Forces Won't Fire First Bullet, Rajnath Singh Tells Pak Rangers

File photo of Home Minister Rajnath Singh

At the same time, Mr Singh said, Pakistan must ensure that terrorists do not infiltrate into India from its territory.” We have to be united in controlling terrorism,” he said.

The Pakistani Rangers are in Delhi for three-day talks with India’s Border Security Force to discuss ways of reducing tension along the border.

Mr Singh’s words came shortly after a gunbattle in Handwara in Kashmir, in which two army personnel and two terrorists were killed. The gun-battle began last night after the army cordoned off an area where terrorists were believed to be hiding.

On Thursday, Indian and Pakistani border security officers discussed that troops across the International Border may start speaking to each other more frequently, and at lower levels as well to sort out local issues faster.

The Pakistani officers were led by Rangers Director General Umar Farooq Burki and the Indian side was led by BSF Director DK Pathak. The Director Generals of the BSF and Pakistan Rangers will hold discussions till Saturday.

This is the first meeting between India and Pakistan after the first high-level peace talks between the two countries collapsed at the eleventh hour a fortnight ago.

Pakistan Rangers raised the need of greater communication between the two border guarding troops at the meet in New Delhi today.

“Communication is now at the sector level, we are open to allowing communication at level lower – Battalion or even across some critical Border Out Post,” a senior Home Ministry official told NDTV after the day-long negotiations with the Pakistani Rangers.

Coordination between troops on either side of the border has suffered amid a rise on border firing, with both countries blaming each other.

Last month, the first high-level peace talks in years between the National Security Advisers of the two countries were cancelled after a dispute over the agenda for those talks. India wanted to discuss terrorism-related issues and objected to Pakistan’s intentions of meeting separatists from Kashmir. Pakistan insisted that it would raise Kashmir.