NEW DELHI: The military operations chiefs of India and Pakistan held their weekly phone conversation on Tuesday amid reports that their face-to-face meeting, mandated by their prime ministers during their recent talks in New York, could take some more time, Press Trust of India said.

A PTI report accused Pakistan of continued ceasefire violations along the Line of Control and the international border. A separate report quoted Indian Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde as saying that Pakistani cleric Hafiz Saeed was behind the recent upsurge of alleged cross-border infiltration of militants into the Kashmir Valley.

Indian Army officials said the directors general of military operations (DGMOs) picked up the phone after a week’s pause caused by Eid holidays.

They discussed the situation on the LoC and international border among other issues.

PTI said ceasefire violations by Pakistan along the LoC and IB had increased and this year alone as many as 204 such incidents occurred in Jammu and Kashmir.

It said Pakistani troops on Tuesday pounded several Indian posts with mortar shells in Hamirpur and Bhimber Gali sub-sectors of Poonch district.

“Indications are that the (DGMOs) meeting could wait for a few more weeks as infiltrators are making last-ditch efforts to cross over before winter sets in and infiltration routes get snowed up.”

Mr Shinde said on Tuesday that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed could be training terrorists on the other side of the border for infiltration.

He made these remarks while talking to reporters and in his address to BSF personnel in Jammu after reviewing the security situation in Jammu region in the wake of escalation in ceasefire violations along the LoC.

“As per our information it is possible that he must be giving training to terrorists on the other side of the border in various launching pads but unless that government (of Pakistan) hands him over to us there is a problem,” Mr Shinde said.

He sent a strong message in Jammu, telling Pakistan that Jammu and Kashmir was an integral part of India and no third party intervention was acceptable, PTI said.

Speaking to the media, Mr Shinde observed that Pakistan’s suggestion of third party intervention was completely unacceptable to New Delhi.

“It has been our unflinching stand since Nehru’s period that Kashmir is India’s integral part,” he said, adding that all issues between India and Pakistan could be resolved bilaterally as per the Simla Agreement.