Pakistan refuses to accept sweets offered by India on Eid at Wagah border

With ceasefire violations increasing tensions between India and Pakistan along the Line of Control and International Border, the Pakistan Rangers on Saturday refused to accept sweets from Border Security Force (BSF) officials on the occasion of Eid at the border checkpost at Wagah in Punjab, news agency ANI reported.

Pakistan refuses to accept sweets offered by India on Eid at Wagah border

Amritsar/Jammu: With ceasefire violations increasing tensions between India and Pakistan along the Line of Control and International Border, the Pakistan Rangers on Saturday refused to accept sweets from Border Security Force (BSF) officials on the occasion of Eid at the border checkpost at Wagah in Punjab.

Border guarding forces of the two countries have been following a tradition of exchanging sweets on festivals at the International Border in Jammu and along the Attari-Wagah border in Amritsar in Punjab.

BSF Deputy Inspector General in Amritsar, MF Farooqui, told reporters that their gesture of giving sweets on the occasion of Eid was not reciprocated from the other side along the Attari-Wagah border.

"We give sweets on Eid every time. The Rangers have not accepted it today. We always want to maintain peace and tranquillity on the border," he said.

However, the BSF did not offer any sweets to their counterparts along the IB.

A senior BSF commander at its headquarters in Delhi told a news agency that the force did not "offer" Eid sweets along the IB to Rangers as a mark of protest against the ongoing spate of ceasefire violations along this frontier and also the Line of Control (LoC) which have claimed few lives and injured many in the last few days.

Officials said the exchange of sweets along the Indo-Pak border during big festivals on either side takes place at about 18-20 locations and at about 5-6 places the exchange did take place today.

"While along all the iconic and big meeting points along the border there was no exchange of sweets, at some small locations in places like Gurdaspur (Punjab), Rajasthan and Gujarat the exchange did happen," officials said. 

Meanwhile, the Pakistani troops once again violated ceasefire by targeting several Indian positions in Naushera sector of Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Pakistani Army started "unprovoked" firing on Indian positions at 9:25 pm and the firing lasted till 11:45 pm on Friday, a defence spokesman said today.

He said no loss of life or injury was reported from the Indian side when the reports last came in.

There has seen a sudden spurt of ceasefire violations from across the border this month.

A woman was killed and six others, including two BSF jawans, were injured on July 15 in firing and mortar shelling in Jammu district by Pakistan Rangers.

On July 9, Pakistani troops had fired at a forward border post in North Kashmir killing a BSF jawan.

On July 5, a BSF jawan was killed in Pakistani firing along LoC in Nougam sector in 

(With Agency inputs)

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