India agrees to Imran Khan's request, Sushma Swaraj to meet Pakistan foreign minister at United Nations

Sep 20 (AZINS) India on Thursday agreed to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s request for a meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries.

In response to Khan’s letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a meeting will take place between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on the sidelines of the United Nations general Assembly session in New York next week.

Addressing media in New Delhi, Raveesh Kumar, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs said that the New York schedule is just a meeting and not ‘talks or resumption of dialogue.’

The announcement comes hours after Imran Khan’s letter to PM Modi was made public. In the letter dated September 14, Khan wrote that both India and Pakistan owe it to their people to 'resolve all outstanding conflicts, including the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, to bridge differences and achieve a mutually beneficial outcome'.

Evoking Vajpayee, he wrote the former PM believed in building a bridge between India and Pakistan.

"Would be better if the two countries' foreign ministers can meet on the sidelines of UNGA in order to initiate a formal dialogue process that has been pending for long," PM Imran Khan wrote in his letter.

The New York meeting comes at a time when there is certain resentment in India after the brutal murder of a BSF jawan along the International Border by Pakistani forces.

Narender Kumar was ambushed by Pakistan’s Border Action Team (BAT) on Tuesday. When the BSF realised Kumar was missing, they ran pillar to post but were unable to find any information about him. What happened after that was even more perturbing.

Narender Kumar’s body was found around six hours after he went missing. According to BSF’s statement, around 10:40 AM there was firing from the Pak side in Ramgarh Sector. At that time, Narender Kumar was out for patrolling along with his party. During this time Narender Kumar alias Singh got separated from his party.