Home Minister Rajnath Singh meeting Pak Rangers.
Indian forces would not fire the first bullet along the border, Home Minister
Rajnath Singh told a team of Pakistan Rangers today.
"India wants friendly relation with Pakistan and will never fire the first bullet," Home Ministry officials quoted
Rajnath Singh as saying.
At the same time, Pakistan must ensure that terrorists do not infiltrate into India from its territory, Mr Singh said adding that the two nations "have to be united in controlling terrorism".
In response to Mr Singh's appeal, the chief of Pakistani Rangers, Maj Gen
UmarFarooqBurki said, "Your country is very big. It is a great nation. We also want to have very good relations with India,"
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.
The Home Minister also stressed that if firing was to take place for some reason, "civilians should not be targeted on either side".
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
UmarFarooqBurki 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 second day of the meet in New Delhi today.
Coordination between troops on either side of the border had 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 the talks. India wanted to discuss terrorism-related issues and objected to Pakistan's intentions of meeting separatists from Kashmir. Pakistan had insisted that it would raise the Kashmir issue.