Puri-based sand artist appeals for Indo-Pak peace through sculpture

Puri (Odisha): Popular sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik of Odisha has created a sand sculpture titled `Bring Peace` with a design of the India and Pakistan flags.

Pattnaik said that his sand sculpture should be seen as a fervent appeal for India and Pakistan to work wholeheartedly for maintaining peace between the peoples of the two nations.

The sand sculpture was made on a day when both India and Pakistan traded verbal volleys and disagreements over what they would agree to talk about during the proposed national security advisor-level talks that were scheduled to be held on August 24 in New Delhi.

However, in a late night decision on Saturday, the Government of Pakistan issued an official statement in which it said that it was withdrawing from the talks because of what it called India`s preconditions for holding them, as well as blaming India for giving a "concocted" twist to a couple of significant issues that are of mutual importance to both nations.