PM Narendra Modi praises Afghan President's bold initiatives towards peace

 Prime Minister Narendra Modi today praised Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani's bold initiatives towards peace and expressed hope that it will be respected by all parties, referring to a ceasefire announced by the Afghan leader for Eid.

Speaking at the restricted session of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, Prime Minister Modi also promised that India will play an active role in the contact group for Afghanistan under the SCO banner.

"Afghanistan is an unfortunate example of effect of extremism and terrorism. I hope the bold initiatives towards peace taken by President Ghani will be respected by all parties," Modi said at the summit, also attended by Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain.

Modi was referring to the Afghan government's surprise announcement of the week-long ceasefire with the Taliban for Eid.

The ceasefire will last from the 27th of Ramadan until the fifth day of Eid-al-Fitr, President Ghani had tweeted last week, indicating it could run from June 12-19.

Responding to Ghani's announcement, the Taliban yesterday announced the suspension of fighting for the first three days of Eid - the first ceasefire by the militant group in Afghanistan since the 2001 US invasion.
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PM Modi, Pak President shake hands at SCO Summit

Qingdao (China), Jun 10 () Prime Minister Narendra Modi today shook hands with Pakistan's President Mamnoon Hussain and had a brief chat with him at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit here.

The two leaders, who are here to attend the 18th SCO Summit, shook hands after signing of agreements between the members states of the eight nation bloc.
The relations between India and Pakistan had strained after an attack on an army camp in Uri by Pakistan-based terror organisations in 2016. The ties took a severe hit post-sentencing of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav by a military court in April last year.

India had also boycotted the 19th SAARC Summit after the Uri attack. The summit scheduled to be held in Islamabad in 2016 was postponed.

India has been raising the issue of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in various multilateral forums with an aim to build pressure on Islamabad to dismantle the terror infrastructure operating from that country.