Jaishankar to depart for Pakistan to participate in SCO Summit

New Delhi| Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) conference is going to start in Pakistan from Tuesday. Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar will reach Islamabad to attend the SCO Summit. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will organize a dinner and with this the SCO summit will begin. This will be India’s first high-level visit to Pakistan amid the ongoing tension in relations between the two neighboring countries for the last several years.

Both sides have ruled out any bilateral talks between Jaishankar and his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar on the sidelines of the SCO Heads of Government Summit. Jaishankar’s visit to Pakistan is considered very important. In his recent address, Jaishankar had said, ‘‘, like any neighboring country, India would definitely like better relations with Pakistan. But, this cannot happen by ignoring cross-border terrorism.’’ This is the first time after almost nine years that the Foreign Minister of India will visit Pakistan. It is reported that Jaishankar will stay in Pakistan for less than 24 hours.

The last External Affairs Minister of India to visit Pakistan was Sushma Swaraj. He had travelled to Islamabad in December 2015 to attend a conference on Afghanistan. Pakistan had invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to participate in the SCO summit in August.

Tight security arrangements have been made for the SCO summit. Islamabad Inspector General of Police (IGP) Nasir Ali Rizvi said in a statement that a security plan has been prepared for the summit to be held in the capital. He said that security personnel will be deployed in hotels and places where foreign delegations are staying. He said that he will ensure the safety of foreign leaders, delegations and guests. Rizvi said search and information-based operations are being conducted and personnel of Pakistani Army, intelligence agencies, Frontier Corps (FC) and Rangers have been deployed.

Police chief reported that more than 9,000 personnel of the police force have been deployed for security and a traffic plan has also been issued for the convenience of ‘‘citizens.’’ The government has already deployed the army in the capital to deal with any untoward situation and all types of protests and rallies have been banned in Islamabad, neighboring Rawalpindi and some other cities.