Premier Raja Pervez Ashraf on Saturday prayed for peace in his country at a 13th-century Muslim shrine in northern India on a lightning visit in which politics was kept off the agenda. Ashraf and his family prayed at the revered shrine of Sufi saint Hazrat Khwaja Gharib Nawaz in the Indian desert state of Rajasthan, and was slated to return to Islamabad later Saturday.
"I wish for peace in the world and for peace and prosperity in Pakistan," Ashraf wrote in Urdu in the visitors' book after spending half an hour at the shrine in Ajmer, 130 kilometres (80 miles) from the tourist city of Jaipur. Ashraf's prayer for peace came hours after a bomb blast inside a mosque on Saturday killed five people and wounded 28 others in Peshawar, officials said.
Pakistan's parliament is due to dissolve in less than two weeks ahead of elections but rising sectarian violence has raised serious worries over security. Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid earlier hosted a lunch for Ashraf at the Rambagh Palace, a luxury heritage hotel in Jaipur. He said he was welcoming the Pakistani leader with "open arms", despite a chill in ties between the nuclear-armed rivals over recent border clashes.
"It's in our culture to welcome our guests with open arms," said Khurshid, adding controversial topics such as alleged sponsorship of cross-border militancy by Pakistan were not discussed. "Today it was a private visit. There were no official talks. We will do it at the appropriate time," Khurshid said. On Friday, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told parliament ties between the South Asian neighbours could improve only if Pakistan shunned its alleged support to "the terror machine" of cross-border militancy.
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