Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf will arrive here on Saturday on a personal visit to Ajmer Sharif.
The Pakistani Prime Minister, who will be accompanied by his family members, will offer prayers at the shrine of Sufi Saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti.
Ashraf, who will not touch down in New Delhi, will not have any substantive discussions with the Indian side.
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid today said that he looks forward to the visit of the Pakistani Prime Minister, as he will be offering prayers at the Sufi Shrine of Ajmer Sharif, which gives out the message of peace.
“For me, it”s another day. Lunches and dinners are a part of the life of a Foreign Minister. I meet someone today, I meet someone tomorrow and the life goes on,” he said, when asked to comment on the Pakistani Prime Minister”s visit.
Khurshid further said any one who comes with a message of peace in a place of peace should be received with peace.
“It is a private visit. A spiritual visit to a place, which gives out the message of peace; Dargah Sharif gives out a message of peace. And I think anyone comes with a message of peace in a place of peace, we should receive them with peace,” said Khurshid.
“And I think this is the message that we get from the Dargah. This is a private visit and I know nothing more other than the fact that this is a private visit,” he added.
Khurshid, who has ruled out any diplomatic talks with the visiting Pakistani Prime Minister, earlier today said that he would be receiving the visiting dignitary on his private visit to Ajmer Sharif tomorrow as a courtesy.
The dargah dewan of Ajmer shrine, Syed Zainul Abedin Ali Khan, has said that he was opposed to the visit by the Pakistani Prime Minister in the wake of the January 2013 beheading of two Indian soldiers along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir.
He said that he would boycott the Pakistani Prime Minister”s visit on Saturday.
The dialogue process between the two Asian neighbours was impacted by ceasefire violations on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir in January this year with India lodging a strong protest over the brutal killing of two of its soldiers in the Poonch sector.
The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, had termed as ”barbaric” the brutal killing of Indian jawans along the LoC, and said there cannot be business as usual with Islamabad.
Lance Naik Hemraj and Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh were killed by infiltrating Pakistani soldiers in Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir on January 8.
Their bodies were found mutilated, sparking a diplomatic face-off between India and Pakistan and tension along the Line of Control that separates the two countries.
Pakistan had denied India”s claim that its troops crossed the Line of Control to ambush a patrol party in the Mendhar sector in Poonch district. (ANI)