RAWALPINDI: Pakistan has proposed another meeting of senior military commanders of India and Pakistan to resolve the difficulties, which had delayed finalisation of the task of delineation of the line of control in Kashmir as it existed on Dec 17 last year, a military spokesman said here today [Oct 25]. He did not give out the date proposed by Pakistan, but it is gathered from reliable sources that it is towards the end of this week.

Delineation was expected to be completed with the signing of the final maps by the commanders of the two sides ... on Oct 22. But the meeting was adjourned ... without fixing a date for resumption of the talks. The military spokesman today expressed surprise at the reported statement of the Indian Army Chief of Staff, General Sam Manekshaw, in which he had ascribed delay in the conclusion of an agreement to Pakistan alleging that Pakistan had raised a fresh dispute.

The military spokesman said the facts were to the contrary. The area in question, he added, had been discussed and delineated earlier in accordance with the principles of the Simla Agreement. But just before the maps were expected to be signed, the Indian side changed their stand. The area in dispute, which had caused delay in signing the final agreement at the last meeting of the two commanders, is one and a half square miles in size and is believed to be situated somewhere on the Sialkot-Jammu border.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2022