China to send special envoy to Pakistan, India

Envoy will meet the leadership of Pakistan and India to reduce regional tension

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said China has decided to send a special envoy to Pakistan and India amid rising tensions between the neighbouring countries, said Radio Pakistan.

The foreign minister made the revelation while speaking to different private television channels.



According to details, the Chinese envoy will meet the leadership of the two countries in a bid to reduce the ongoing tension in the region.

Qureshi said Pakistan also invited the United Nations (UN) Secretary General António Guterres to mediate in this regard.

Tensions between Pakistan and India escalated rapidly following a suicide car bombing on February 14 that killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police in Indian-occupied Kashmir.

New Delhi accused Islamabad of harbouring the Jaish-e Mohammad group behind the attack, which Islamabad denied, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised a strong response.

Pakistan said the Indian planes missed whatever they were aiming at, and that nobody died in the attack outside Balakot in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).



On March 2, Pakistan handed back a captured Indian pilot Abhinandan whose MiG-21 jet was shot down by a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) during a clash over Kashmir on February 27 as two weeks of growing tensions between the two countries erupted into open hostilities.