DGMO to visit Pak. after summit

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 10. The Director-General of Military Operations (DGMO), Lt. General G. S. Sihota, is likely to visit Islamabad only after the India-Pakistan summit at Agra, an Army spokesman said today.

According to the spokesman, this decision was taken after Pakistan's DGMO, Major General Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani, spoke to his counterpart this afternoon. Maj. Gen. Kiyani felt it would be advisable if Gen. Sihota visited Pakistan after the summit from July 14-16 at ``mutually convenient dates'', the spokesman said.

On Friday last, the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, had stated his intent to sent the DGMO to Pakistan at an ``early date'' to help determine a road map for easing tensions along the Line of Control and the Siachen area. The External Affairs Ministry, however, conveyed the Government's intent to Pakistan only on Monday during the meeting between the Foreign Secretary, Ms. Chokila Iyer, and the Pakistani High Commissioner, Mr. Ashraf Jehangir Qazi. Lt. Gen. Sihota subsequently spoke to his Pakistani counterpart the same day and informed him about the Prime Minister's directive.

India had wanted Lt. Gen. Sihota to visit Pakistan before the summit to concretise confidence-building measures (CBMs) and get a sense of the pre-summit mood in the Pakistani military establishment, highly-placed Government sources said. In fact, the Army spokesman on Sunday pointed out that the DGMO's visit was likely during this week. Pakistan, on its part, was apparently unprepared to receive Lt. Gen. Sihota at short notice having received formal communication about the visit only on Monday. In her briefing this evening, the MEA spokesperson said India's decision to issue visas at the border checkpoints had been communicated to the Pakistani authorities.

To a question, she said the exercise to determine checkpoints along the LoC and the international border in Jammu and Kashmir was yet to be completed.

She confirmed that Pakistan had communicated to the Indian authorities, the composition of its 19-member delegation accompanying Gen. Musharraf for the coming summit. This list, however, did not include the names of security personnel accompanying him.

On the proposed meeting between the All-Party Hurriyat Conference leaders and Gen. Musharraf, the spokesperson said there was no change in India's stand on the subject.

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Section  : National
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