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Ceasefire violations: Stern message sent to Pakistan
Ceasefire Violations: Stern Message Sent To Pakistan. Amid escalating hostilities along the border in Jammu and Kashmir, India on Thursfay warned of \"a forceful response from our forces\" to ceasefire violations, but the tension is unlikely to thwart a planned meeting of National Security Advisers.
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New Delhi: Amid escalating hostilities along the border in Jammu and Kashmir, India on Thursfay warned of "a forceful response from our forces" to ceasefire violations, but the tension is unlikely to thwart a planned meeting of National Security Advisers.
"We are hoping to see peace and tranquility, but if there's unprovoked firing, cross-border terrorism then the choice is not ours," said Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, detailing incidents of border firing since yesterday and the summoning of the Indian envoy by Pakistan after it claimed to have shot down an "Indian spy drone", a claim rubbished by Delhi.
Jaishankar refused to comment on how the new developments would affect the talks at various levels that the two countries agreed to hold when the PM Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif met in Ufa, Russia last week.
"I won't go into the 2016 meetings at the moment. What came out of Ufa was in a sense ... an outcome of a meeting between the two PMs. It is not for us to say that they should not meet or have a conversation," said Jaishankar.
The priority at the moment, the Foreign Secretary said, "is stabilising the border and making clear our position. We stand for strengthening peace and stability with Pakistan, as well as our willingness to protect our sovereignty and integrity."
Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday called an urgent meeting with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar to review the overall situation in the wake of fresh ceasefire violations by Pakistan along the border in Jammu and Kashmir.
The high-level meeting is tentatively scheduled to be held at the Home Ministry in the North Block with National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval in attendance.
Sources said Singh has called for the meeting to undertake a complete review of the emerging situation and in the backdrop of hectic developments on the security and diplomatic fronts on the issue in the last two days.
The meeting between the two Prime Ministers last week was seen as an important breakthrough. Last year, India had cancelled talks between foreign secretaries of both countries after the Pakistan envoy in New Delhi insisted on hosting Kashmiri separatists days before the dialogue.
India said Pakistani troops fired at five of its forward bases and six villagers on Wednesday, when a woman was killed.
On Wednesday, the Pakistani military said it had shot down an Indian surveillance drone. A photograph released by the military appeared to show a small, unarmed model. Jaishankar said it was a "commercially available" Chinese design.
Pakistan summoned India's envoy on Thursday morning and complained that India had violated two agreements on air space violations.
