Top India and Pakistan military officials hold rare meeting
- 24 December 2013
- From the section India
Top Indian and Pakistani military officials have met for the first time in 14 years to discuss ways to ensure peace along Kashmir's de facto border.
The Director Generals Military Operations (DGMOs) met at the Wagah crossing to work out a mechanism to ease tension, reports say.
The disputed Himalayan region is divided between India and Pakistan by the Line of Control (LoC).
Bilateral ties have been strained this year by a series of deadly clashes.
The violence has left a number of soldiers dead on both sides, including five Indian soldiers killed in August.
The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says the talks look like a gesture from the military on both sides that they are serious about mending fences.
Our correspondent says the meeting suggests neither side wants tensions to escalate any further.
India has long accused Pakistan of sponsoring militants in the disputed region - though despite a recent rise in attacks, overall violence has declined since the early 2000s.
But relations plunged again over the 2008 Mumbai attack, which India blamed on militants based in Pakistan.
In September, the leaders of India and Pakistan, Manmohan Singh and Nawaz Sharif met on the sidelines of the UN assembly in New York and pledged to work together to halt the upsurge of violence in Kashmir.