BSF-Pakistan Rangers reinitiate sweet diplomacy

ATTARI: As against the normal practice of informing media about border ritual of exchanging sweets on various national and religious occasions, BSF officials on Friday quietly resumed the tradition and exchanged sweets with Pakistan Rangers on the occasion of Eid-ul-Zuha.
BSF deputy inspector general, Amritsar sector, MF Farooqi exchanges sweets with his counterpart of Pakistan Rangers lieutenant colonel Bilal, wing commander, Pakistan Rangers at Zero Line, Attari international border.
However as against fruit baskets and couple of sweet boxes, the quantity of sweets have come down to just one box.
Pakistan Rangers DG Umar Farooq Burki had held talks four days with his counterparts in BSF DK Pathak at Delhi from September 9 to 12 to resolve cross-border issues including smuggling, ceasefire violation etc. But within five days of his return, BSF had recovered 38kg heroin from India-Pakistan international border in Punjab. Also there was no respite from ceasefire violations in J&K as sub-inspector of BSF Sohal Lal had died in firing from across the line of control in Rajouri Sector of J&K.
The fracas over sweets diplomacy began in October, 2014 when Pakistan Rangers didn't turn up at Zero line to exchange sweets and greetings on the occasion of Eid-ul-Zuha. Reciprocating Pakistan Rangers' gesture, BSF, on occasion of Diwali 2014 also declined to exchange sweets and pleasantries with their counterparts. In July 2015, during a meeting with Pakistan Rangers, BSF had offered to continue the tradition of exchanging sweets on the occasion of Eid but the former didn't show any interest following which there was no exchange of sweets on the occasion of festival of Eid-al-Fitr on July 18. However, earlier on March 23rd, Pakistan Rangers had offered sweets to mark Pakistan Day.