Pak ambassador joins Diwali revelry in Beijing

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 on Saturday evening. Khan also cheered 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 Asif Ali Zardari, the present one.
The Khans stayed close to two hours and joined in the dinner with the Indian ambassador, 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. This is the first time in many years that a Pakistani ambassador has visited the Indian embassy on a festive occasion giving the event a diplomatic hue.
The celebrations was attended by Indians living in Beijing included a Bharat Natyam performance by Chinese dancer Jin Shanshan and display of fire crackers, which is usually not allowed outside the embassy premises in Beijing.