Indian and Pakistani soldiers exchange pleasantries during a meeting at Chakan da Bagh in Poonch on Tuesday. A Tribune Photo

Ravi Krishnan Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, April 12

India and Pakistan today held a Battalion Commanders level flag meeting at Chakan da Bagh in Poonch district to ensure peace along the de facto border.Pakistan had violated ceasefire on the Line of Control in the Poonch sector on Saturday night.“Pakistan, which had violated the mutually brokered truce deal after a gap of six months in Poonch sector, however, remained in denial mode. On the contrary, Pakistan blamed us for violating the ceasefire agreement,” said an official source.A residential house and a car were damaged in Pakistani shelling in Shahpur village of Poonch.We asked them to maintain peace and calm along the LoC in the larger interest of the border population of both the sides, the source added.“A Battalion Commander level flag meeting was held at Chakan da Bagh at 11 today. The meeting was held to take forward the peace process initiated since the Brigade Commander level flag meeting on September 21, last year,” said SN Acharya, officiating Defence spokesperson.The meeting which lasted for nearly 30 minutes, Colonel ranked officers leading the respective delegations acknowledged each other’s efforts in maintaining peace and tranquility on the LoC in the recent past, Acharya said.“Both sides mutually agreed to the importance of exercising restraint and keeping the communication alive through established mechanisms via hot line messages and flag meetings,” he added.The flag meeting ended on a positive note and both sides reaffirmed their faith in ensuring everlasting peace and tranquility on the LoC by redressing mutual concerns on priority in the future, Acharya said.As per official data, around 405 incidents of cross-border firing took place along the Indo-Pak border in J&K in 2015, killing 16 civilians.Of the 405 incidents, 253 incidents of cross border firing were recorded along the 198-km-long international border while 152 were registered along the LoC.The ceasefire on Indo-Pak border had come into force on November 26, 2003.The fresh ceasefire violation had come three days after Pakistan suspended the dialogue process with India.