Wagah, December 20
The Pakistani Rangers and the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) today decided to hold simultaneous coordinated patrolling (SCP) along the 533-km-long Indo-Pak border with a view to check border crimes on both sides. The meeting assumed significance as the BSF authorities and their Pakistani counterparts met after a gap of two years at Wagah on Pakistani side.
It was decided at the meeting that the SCP, which was discontinued after the attack on Indian Parliament, would be revived and the Commandants of BSF and Pakistani Rangers would be frequently meeting for resolving Commandant-level bilateral issues. It would also help in decreasing the border crime which had witnessed a steep rise in the past two years in the absence of SCP. Now both forces would help each other to check illegal and inadvertent border crossing.
The meeting was held on the Pakistani side while the next meeting would be held in India after three months.
The six-member BSF team, led by Mr Darbara Singh, Additional DIG, crossed over to pakistan to hold the meeting with Pakistani Wing Commander Sher Zaman. The other BSF officials who attended the meeting with their Pakistani counterparts included Mr D.K. Sharma, Commandant, Mr A. Mohanti, Mr Amarjit Singh, Mr J.S. Singla and Mr M.K. Singh.
Mr Darbara Singh, the leader of the BSF team, expressed his satisfaction over the meeting and hoped that the chain of meetings would follow in future. Apart from discouraging border infiltration, the issue of exchange of prisoners also figured in the meeting.
