Great experience to watch retreat ceremony: Indian envoy to Pak

Attari (Punjab) [India], Jan. 21 (ANI): High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria on Sunday termed the retreat ceremony at the Attari-Wagah border as a "great experience".

"This was the first time I had the opportunity to watch the retreat ceremony. The energy of the crowd was excellent. It was a combination of patriotism and support for peace from both the sides. The atmosphere looked like an India-Pakistan cricket match," Bisaria told ANI after watching the retreat ceremony.

On being asked about the continuous ceasefire violations by Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir, Bisaria said that he was being constantly updated on the situation and such issues would be taken up to ensure peace and stability across the Line of Control (LoC).

The Indian envoy attended the retreating ceremony earlier in the day and left for Pakistan in a hope to cement better relations between the two countries.

"We want peace on both the sides and want to forget what happened in the past. This assignment (as High Commissioner to Pakistan) is interesting and has own challenges and our major focus is to maintain peace. Also, regarding the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, we are regularly keeping on taking up issues such as ceasefire violation with counterparts there and are working on this issue as well," he said.

The comments by Bisaria comes at a time when Pakistani Rangers continued their shelling activities on the fourth straight day along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.

Scores of civilians have been killed and injured, along with Indian Army soldiers in the ceasefire violations.

A 1987-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, Bisaria was appointed by the government as the new Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan in November last year. He was India's Ambassador to Poland and Lithuania prior to this appointment. He was also the private secretary to then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee between 1999 and 2004. (ANI)