Imran Khan reaches out to India, says let's talk and resolve issues like Kashmir

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has reached out to India saying the countries must engage in talks and resolve their conflicts on issues such as Kashmir. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief has said dialogue and trade between the neighbours can alleviate poverty and benefit the people living in the subcontinent.

Taking to microblogging site Twitter, the newly-elected Pakistan Prime Minister said, “To move forward Pakistan and India must dialogue and resolve their conflicts incl Kashmir: The best way to alleviate poverty and uplift the people of the subcontinent is to resolve our differences through dialogue and start trading.”

To move forward Pakistan and India must dialogue and resolve their conflicts incl Kashmir: The best way to alleviate poverty and uplift the people of the subcontinent is to resolve our differences through dialogue and start trading https://t.co/V2UkXp0WwS

— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) August 21, 2018

Imran Khan also thanked Indian cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu for attending his swearing-in ceremony. Calling Sidhu an “ambassador of peace”, the PTI chief said that those targeting him for the same are doing a “disservice to peace in the subcontinent”.

“I want to thank Sidhu for coming to Pakistan for my oath taking. He was an ambassador of peace & was given amazing love & affection by ppl of Pakistan. Those in India who targeted him are doing a gt disservice to peace in the subcontinent - without peace our ppl cannot progress (sic),” said the Pakistani Prime Minister.

The call for dialogue with India by Imran Khan came after Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked Islamabad to resume dialogue with New Delhi in his congratulatory letter to the PTI chief.

Asserting that talks between the two neighbours must resume, the Pakistan minister had said that there was need for “continued and uninterrupted” dialogue between India and Pakistan. He said that the countries could not afford to indulge in adventurism.

Reacting to it, India had clarified that Prime Minister Modi had merely sent a congratulatory letter to Imran Khan, adding that there was no mention of resuming dialogue with Islamabad.