India proposes Pakistan to open up more shrines to pilgrimage

New Delhi : India and Pakistan are not having a good relationship bilaterally, but India is looking forward to build on goodwill with religious tourism. India has proposed Pakistan to open up more shrines to pilgrimage.

India believes an early implementation of the proposal, including travel by air, to allow people to visit the pilgrimage sites in Pakistan.

The foreign ministry has also confirmed that the supply of wheat to Afghanistan will soon begin via Pakistan.

"As you are aware, under the 1974 Protocol between India and Pakistan, visits to religious shrines are being facilitated regularly. There is an interest on both sides to expand the agreed list of shrines and mode of travel. It naturally needs to be discussed under the Protocol," said MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi.

"Let me underline that India has a positive approach on this matter and is willing to engage the Pakistani side," he added.

Last year, Pakistan had issued visa to 112 Indian pilgrims to visit a Hindu temple in Pakistan Punjab.

A mechanism to facilitate religious tourism was among the 5 agreements that PM Narendra Modi had reached in 2015 with his then counterpart Nawaz Sharif in a bilateral meeting in Russia.