Pakistan-Afghan military officials met for security talks

The Afghan and Pakistani military officials have reportedly met in Pakistan to boost the bilateral cooperation on security level amid ongoing efforts to establish the joint working groups as part of the Afghanistan Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS).

The Afghan and Pakistani operations chiefs participated in the last round of the bilateral talks on Sunday to review progress on security cooperation, appointment of liaison officers and establishment of coordination centres along the border.

Sources privy of the development have told Daily Times that the director generals military operations of the two countries met amid growing interaction between the military officials in recent months to finalise deployment of liaison officers (LOs), establishment of Ground Coordination Centres (GCCs) for intelligence sharing and to monitor cross-border movement of militants.

The Liaison Officers would share intelligence about suspects to the host country and would accompany intelligence officials during raids against suspects, according to the sources.

Ground Coordination Centres will be established at Torkham and Chaman, the main crossing points in the first phase, and more will be put in place at a later stage along other border points.

This comes as the Afghan delegation led by the Afghan National Security Advisor Mohammad Hanif Atmar last month visited Pakistan for the bilateral talks in the framework of the Afghanistan Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity.

The Afghan and Pakistani officials had earlier agreed to take practical steps regarding the start of the operations of the six working groups upon which President Ghani and Prime Minister Abbasi had reached to an agreement.