Indias sweets refused on Eid by Pakistan soldiers on wahga border
Amid the prevailing tension between India and Pakistan over ceasefire violations along their border, Pakistani Rangers on Saturday refused to accept the sweets offered by the BSF on the occasion of Eid.
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.
Border Security Force (BSF) Deputy Inspector General in Amritsar, M F 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 tranquility 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 PTI 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.
In the wake of repeated ceasefire violations by Pakistani Rangers, India has warned Pakistan of "effective and forceful" response to unprovoked firing and cross-border terrorism.
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.
India Today
