Islamabad/IBNS: India might invite Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan for the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meet, media reports said on Wednesday.
India will host the SCO council of heads of government meeting this year.
India will be hosting the meet for the first time.
However, a final decision on whether PM Khan attends the meeting, which will likely be held later in the year, will be made by Islamabad, people familiar with developments told Hindustan Times.
“According to protocol and convention, an invitation will be extended to the Pakistani Prime Minister. It is up to Pakistan whether their Prime Minister or some other representative attends the meeting. Besides, there is still a long time before the meeting,” a person, who declined to be named, told the newspaper.
The relationship between India and Pakistan touched new low last year.
India-Pakistan tie reaches new low:
India and Pakistan, the two nuclear-armed nations, almost reached the brink of war following the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama area on February 14 which led to the death of 40 Indian paramilitary force personnel. Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad terror group took responsibility for the attack.
Blaming the neighbouring nation for the terror attack, India carried out airstrikes on terror camps in Pakistan.
The tension between the two nations heightened on Feb 26 when Indian fighter jets moved deep inside Pakistan and bombed JeM terror camps in Balakot. It was for the first time since the 1971 war that the Indian jets entered inside Pakistan to drop bombs. Following this incident, aerial combat between air forces of the two countries occurred on February 27 when Pakistan jets entered India. On its way to chase Pakistani jets, an Indian Air Force jet crashed in Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
The injured Indian pilot was captured by Pakistan. But things soon normalised after Pakistan decided to release the Indian pilot-Abhinandan Varthaman. He at once became India's newest hero.
Pakistan also ended all diplomatic ties, expelled Indian high commissioner and even closed air, land, railway and business ties with India after the Narendra Modi-led government scrapped article 370 in August that revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.
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