New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan on the sidelines of the SCO summit in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek Friday, Indian official sources told ThePrint.
Modi, they said, exchanged pleasantries with Khan at the leaders’ lounge at the summit venue. There was no formal meeting or “pull-aside”, just pleasantries exchanged, the sources stressed.
ThePrint had reported on 28 May that the two leaders were expected to meet on the sidelines of the summit and possibly begin the process of resuming stalled peace talks.
Khan had called Modi on 26 May, expressing his desire to work together.
On 23 May, after the Lok Sabha election results were announced, Khan had tweeted his congratulations to the PM.
One day before the results, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had told his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj in Bishkek that Pakistan wanted peace.
The Modi government has, however, insisted that talks and terror cannot go together and that Islamabad should stop terror attacks emanating from its soil before a meaningful dialogue can begin.
Relations between India and Pakistan nosedived after the 14 February suicide attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama in which 40 personnel were killed. The attack was claimed by Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed.
In retaliation, India launched air strikes on a Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camp in Balakot in Pakistan on 26 February. A day later, the Pakistani Air Force tried to bomb an Indian military facility in the Jammu region but was thwarted after a dogfight with the IAF.
Those aiding terrorism must be held accountable: PM says in front of Imran
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, however, Friday said countries sponsoring, aiding and funding terrorism must be held accountable as he called for a global conference to combat the menace.
“Countries sponsoring, aiding and funding terrorism must be held accountable,” he said at the SCO summit in the presence of his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan.
He also recalled his recent visit to Sri Lanka. “During my visit to Sri Lanka last Sunday, I visited the St Anthony’s church, where I witnessed the ugly face of terrorism which claims the lives of innocents anywhere,” the Prime Minister said.
The MEA has, meanwhile, also registered its strong protest at the Pakistan government’s refusal to grant visas to an official jatha of 87 pilgrims who were to visit gurdwaras across the border on the occasion of the Shaheedi Jor Mela on 7 June.
The MEA had earlier requested visas for the pilgrims under the bilateral agreement, the Protocol on Visit to Religious Shrines, 1974.
Sources said the Ministry of External Affairs expressed concern at the disregard shown by the High Commission of Pakistan on the religious sentiments and devotion of the Indian pilgrims especially as Pakistan has, sources added, unilaterally granted restrictive visas (by rail only) to a private group of Indian pilgrims. The MEA has called upon Pakistan to immediately grant visas without any restriction.
Also read: PM Modi meets Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of SCO summit
- With PTI inputs.