KABUL – The fourth round of bilateral talks between Kabul and Islamabadconcluded in the format of the Afghanistan Pakistan Action Plan for Peaceand Solidarity (APPS), reports have emerged suggesting that the Islamabadis keen to deploy senior army officials to Afghanistan, to pave the way forbilateral cooperation on military level to counter the existent threats thetwo countries pose from the terror groups safe havens.

Sources privy of the development have said that Islamabad is keen regardingthe deployment of the top army generals boths by Pakistan and Afghanistan,to start from Embass level.

Ahead of the 4th round of the APPS meeting that the two sides will holdfollow up discussions on the modality to deploy liaison officers (LOs) inboth countries to share information about the presence and activities ofsuspects and to take action, a source said.

The sources further added that the deployment of LOs, who will be militaryofficials at the brigadier or colonel level, could be deployed initially atthe embassies in Islamabad and Kabul for joint supervision, coordinationand confirmation mechanism.

“If the LOs system makes progress, LOs could later be deployed at GHQ inPakistan and Defence Ministry in Kabul,” a source privy to the Pak-Afghandiscussions said.

The Afghan officials have not commented in this regard so far but theAfghan foreign ministry officials had earlier said that no majorbreakthrough has been made during the previous talks in the format of theAPPS meeting, mainly due to the circumstances surrounding the fight againstthe terrorism.