New Delhi:
Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf will visit India for the first time this week for a day-long pilgrimage to the Ajmer Sharif shrine near Jaipur, a senior government official said in New Delhi on Tuesday.
"Pakistan's prime minister will be in India on Saturday. This is a private visit and he will be accompanied by his family and other officials," the official said on condition of anonymity.
"He is not expected to meet any Indian political leaders. This is clearly a religious and spiritual trip," he told AFP.
It will be the most senior visit from a Pakistani official to India since last April when President Asif Ali Zardari embarked on a similar pilgrimage and then had a lunch meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Tension between India and Pakistan surged in January when a total of six soldiers were killed in exchanges along the Line of Control in Kashmir. Pakistani troops crossed onto the India side and killed two Indian soldiers; one of them was found decapitated.
Though both countries exchanged severe language and warnings, they agreed that the killings should not provoke a larger crisis.