PESHAWAR, Aug 12: Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States have agreed to establish a three-way hotline in an effort to coordinate military movements and preempt a recurrence of Monday’s incident in which US forces killed two Pakistani soldiers.

This was decided at a meeting of senior diplomatic and military representatives of the three countries held at Bagram Airbase, north of Kabul, on Tuesday.

The US and Pakistani officials said the Monday incident was the result of a mistaken identity wherein the Pakistani troops were taken for the Taliban and Al Qaeda elements.

Before the meeting, a senior Pakistani official told Dawn that Pakistan would take a tough stand on the Monday incident and call for standard operating procedures to be followed to avoid a repeat of such an incident in future. “Such incidents have got to stop now,” the official said.

A two-member team comprising Director-General Military Operations (DGMO) Maj-Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Director-General of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Rasheed Saleem Khan, flew into Bagram Airbase earlier in the day to take part in the tripartite deliberations on border issues.

An official announcement issued from Rawalpindi said a tripartite commission “noted with regrets” Monday’s incident. “Investigations of the incident are under way. The parties stressed the need for greater coordination to prevent the recurrence of such incidents in future,” it said.

The commission decided to establish a three-way hotline between senior representatives of the three countries,” it said, adding the three countries also agreed to further coordinate their efforts to combat terror-ism.

An official in Peshawar said Pakistan had sent more troops to North Waziristan Agency on the border with Afghanis-tan.

“Both sides have taken up positions but it was a quiet day and nothing untoward has happened,” the official said.

A flag meeting of Pakistani and US troops that was earlier planned could not take place, the official said.

Meanwhile, the official announcement said the tripartite commission heard the report of the sub-committee established at the previous meeting to carry out ground verifica-tion to address each other’s concerns about incidents of border violations.

Members of the sub-committee visited the area last month to establish the position on the ground.

The commission directed the sub-committee to continue its function and recommend measures during the next meeting of the commission to be held in Pakistan next month.

The official told Dawn that the technical sub-committee had collected all the necessary data through the Global Positioning System (GPS) and satellites which was put be-fore the commission for deliberation.

The sub-committee has been formed to iron out a border dispute between Pakistan and Afghanistan following allegations by Kabul that Pakistani troops intruded into the Afghan territory.

The allegation sparked widespread protests in Afghanistan and resulted in an attack on the Pakistani embassy in Kabul.

At the meeting at Bagram Airbase, the Afghan delegation was led by National Security Adviser Dr Zalmay Rassoul and assisted by Deputy Interior Minister Hilaluddin Hilal, General Sher Mohammad Karimi of the Defence Ministry, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Omar Samad and Afghanistan’s Ambassador to Pakistan Nangyalai Tarzi.

Pakistan’s Ambassador to Kabul Rustam Shah Mohmand was there to assist the Pakistani team.

The United States was represented by Maj-Gen John Vines.