No bilateral with Pakistan on agenda at Saarc

The ministry of external affairs (MEA) on Friday reiterated that there will be no bilateral meeting between home minister Rajnath Singh and Pakistani leaders when he travels to Islamabad to attend the Saarc ministerial conference on August 4.

MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted, “Let me categorically state that @home minister of India is going for Saarc event. There will be no bilateral meetings with Pakistan.”

The remarks by the MEA Spokesperson that set the record straight came in the backdrop of certain media reports that claimed that Mr Singh may have a bilateral with his counterpart Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Swarup had also clearly said earlier at his weekly briefing on Thursday that the Home minister was going for a multilateral Saarc event and there will not be any bilateral meeting.

According to sources in home ministry, Mr Singh is expected to convey a clear message Pakistan to stop sponsoring acts of terror in India and also raise the issue of slow pace of probe into the Pathankot airbase terror attack, which was carried out by Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad, and the trial into the Mumbai terror attack case in that country.

Mr Singh’s visit comes in the backdrop of growing strain in Indo-Pak ties after a war of words between the two neighbours over the Kashmir issue.

Mr Singh will be accompanied by Union home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and several other senior officers of the home ministry.