Diwali brings India, Pak envoys together in China

BEIJING: India-Pakistan relations sparkled for a while as Pakistani ambassador Masood Khan and his wife, Zohra, took the rare step of participating in Diwali celebrations at the Indian embassy premises in Beijing on Saturday evening. Khan also waved at artists performing on the stage and the assembled Indians as a gesture of bonhomie.
The move comes soon after Indian ambassador S Jaishankar visited the Pakistani embassy to pay his condolences over the recent demise of Begum Nusrat Bhutto, the wife and mother of two different prime ministers of Pakistan and the mother-in-law of President Asif Ali Zardari.
The Khans stayed for close to two hours and joined Indian ambassador S Jaishankar for dinner along with Sultan Ahmad Baheri, the ambassador of Afghanistan and Sun Weidong, deputy director general of the department of Asian affairs in the Chinese ministry of foreign affairs. The diwali celebrations which were attended by Indians living in Beijing featured a Bharatnatyam performance by Chinese dancer Jin Shanshan and a display of fire crackers.