Pakistan troops to keep up aggressive ritual at Indian border
INDIA: Pakistani troops will continue an aggressive military
ceremony at a border crossing with rival India because it is a tradition
and attracts tourists, officials said.
Indian border guards announced in November they would tone down their
ceremony performed every evening at the Wagah border post amid warming
relations between the nuclear-armed South Asia rivals.
But the chief of Pakistan's paramilitary frontier force said here the
furious goose step and slamming of gates by his soldiers when the border
closed for the night was an important tradition.
"It is not hostility but a tradition to pay utmost respect to the
flag and it will continue," said Major General Javid Zia, who is meeting
with his Indian counterparts in the northern Indian city of Jalandhar,
80 kilometres (50 miles) from here.
Pakistan's junior information minister Tariq Azim, on a visit to New
Delhi, told reporters the ceremony was a "tourist attraction" that drew
thousands of people to both sides of the border.
During four days of talks, Zia said he had discussed the speedy
release of Indian and Pakistani nationals arrested for inadvertently
crossing over the border into each other's territories.
"Now both the nations have decided to make arrangements for the early
repatriation of all such innocent civilians... since on both sides,
innocent civilians after crossing the international border are lodged in
jails," he said.
Amritsar, Sunday, AFP |