Sartaj Aziz reaches Amritsar early for Heart of Asia conference

Amritsar: Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan's Foreign Affairs Advisor, reached here on Saturday evening for the Heart of Asia conference, ahead of his scheduled arrival on Sunday morning.

The suddenly changing weather conditions were cited as the reason behind Aziz's early arrival.

Aziz's early arrival, however, has fueled speculations that he would be having a meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he is attending a dinner hosted by the Indian PM for conference delegates.

"We suggested Aziz to arrive early due to densely fogged morning in India," said a Pakistani diplomat.

Significantly, dozens of flights to north Indian cities, including Amritsar, are flying late. The visibility forecast on Sunday morning was 600M, which is far below the recommended 1000M to get clearance to VIP flights, claimed another official.

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According to the sources, Aziz is not expected to meet PM Modi as the tension between the two countries is on the rife due to the latest Nagrota terror attack where three terrorists killed 7 soldiers of Indian Army.

On being asked about the chances of a meeting between Aziz and PM Modi, a senior official said, "There is no meeting."

Aziz will meet Narendra Modi in presence of other ministerial guests at the conference scheduled to be held at the Sadda Pind local resort for dinner.

It is likely that on Sunday morning, India and Afghanistan will further put pressure on Pakistan over the issue of terrorism. The conference will be jointly inaugurated by PM Modi and Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani. The two world leaders will also hold a bilateral meeting, which would be their fourth such meeting in 2016.