JOIN USPrime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday deputed Minister of State for External Affairs Gen (retd) V K Singh to attend the Pakistan's National Day celebration at its High Commission in New Delhi.
This was his latest attempt to mend ties with the neighbouring nation.
Singh drove to the High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi on Monday evening to represent the government in a reception that was also attended by Kashmiri separatist leaders.
Modi also wrote to Pakistan Prime Minister M Nawaz Sharif, greeting him on the occasion and underlining that outstanding issues between the two nations could be resolved through bilateral dialogue in a terror-free environ.
Modi's overtures were a departure from the hard line his government had taken earlier on the issue. Nevertheless, in an apparent bid to offset any adverse public opinion, New Delhi also indicated that it did not endorse Islamabad’s continued hobnobbing with the Hurriyat Conference and other separatist organisations in J&K.
“It is my firm conviction that all outstanding issues (between India and Pakistan) can be resolved through bilateral dialogue in an atmosphere free from terror & violence (sic),” Modi wrote on Twitter.
The tweet came just days after two back-to-back terrorist attacks at Kathua and Samba in J&K. Both attacks were carried out by “fidayeen” from Pakistan, and Indian security agencies fear that more terrorists might sneak in from across the border to carry out similar strikes in the state.
Singh, a former chief of the Indian Army, on Monday briefly shared the dais with High Commissioner of Pakistan in New Delhi, Abdul Basit, who made a short speech about his country’s progress since 1947.