Ahead of Sartaj Aziz's visit, India says no bilateral meeting request from Pakistan

New Delhi: Just two days ahead of Pakistan foreign policy chief Sartaj Aziz’s visit, India on Wednesday clarified that it has not officially received a request for any bilateral meeting from Islamabad. [caption id=“attachment_3119224” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Foreign Policy Advisor Sartaj Aziz. File photo. Reuters[/caption] “Pakistan has not requested for any bilateral meeting so far,” Gopal Baglay, who heads the Ministry of External Affairs division dealing with Pakistan, said at a media briefing. Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Foreign Policy Advisor Sartaj Aziz is scheduled to visit Amritsar, Punjab, on 3 December to attend the Heart of Asia Conference. The conference, which will be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, will see the participation of over 40 countries. This would be the first high-level visit from Pakistan after the announcement of Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue in December last year, which never took off in the wake of terror strikes, including the Pathankot airbase attack, and subsequent incidents which led to intense tensions between the two countries. Ties between India and Pakistan have soured after the terrorist attack on an army base in Uri town of Jammu and Kashmir in September that left 19 soldiers dead and many wounded. India has blamed Pakistan based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad for the attack. India also recently boycotted the Saarc summit, scheduled to be held in Islamabad in November, citing continuous cross-border terrorism from Pakistan.