Unscheduled meeting in Pakistan could signal better India ties

Modi greeted Sharif on his birthday, attended the wedding celebrations of the Pakistani leader’s granddaughter and also held talks on bilateral issues, officials and media reports said.

Top officials in both countries were surprised by the visit, which had been a closely kept secret.

Hafiz Saeed said prior to his visit to Lahore, Narendra Modi incited Afghan people against Pakistan in his speech. “The subsequent events, in fact, indicated the difficulties, but it is a remarkable fact, and perhaps unprecedented, that this peace process has been revived, and the manner in which the Prime Minister has revived it is quite extraordinary”, he said. What I don’t have much of a stomach for is grand gestures that steal the headlines and a couple of news cycles, but don’t translate in to anything meaningful on the ground.

Modi made an unscheduled pit stop in Lahore on Friday while returning to Delhi from Afghanistan.

This was the first visit of Indian Prime Minister to Pakistan after 2004 when Vajpayee had travelled to the country for the SAARC summit. In a tweet on Saturday, he said, “Whispers are floating that a steel oligarch who ostensibly brokered a meeting between Modi & Nawaz in Thimpu is in Lahore now Any guesses”.

Jehangir said the Prime Minister’s visit to Pakistan is a honest attempt on his part to develop cordial relationship with the neighbouring country.

But few in India and Pakistan knew about the programme, coming at a time when bilateral relations between New Delhi and Islamabad showed definite improvement after months of tensions and border clashes. Several insurgent groups have been fighting since 1989 for Kashmir’s independence from India or its merger with Pakistan. One only hopes that such developments will not recur in Pakistan now.

There is concern in India that an eventual drawdown of U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan will make it more likely that Pakistan-based fighters will turn their weapons on India.

Welcoming Modi’s visit, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said that it would be helpful for peace and stability in the region.

According to diplomatic sources, India was under intense worldwide pressure following Pakistan’s strong stance at the United Nations and submission of three dossiers comprising proofs of Indian involvement in subversive activities in Karachi and Balochistan. He sought remind the country that BJP’s Lok Sabha victory had come riding on an anti-Pakistan plan and in the light of the same Modi’s visit was confusing at best.

“Such meetings have been taking place in the past, but have proven useless after some time”, he said in Muzaffarabad, capital of the Pakistan-controlled territory.