India to hold meet with Pak over Kartarpur Corridor on March 14

The first meeting between India and Pakistan to discuss and finalise modalities for the Kartarpur Corridor would be held at Attari-Wagah on March 14, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Wednesday in a statement. "India has also proposed that a technical level discussion on the alignment of the corridor be held on the same day on the sidelines of this meeting," the statement outlined.

Following this, the Indian delegation is due to visit Islamabad on March 28, according to Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Pakistan has taken steps to de-escalate tensions with India following the Pulwama terror strike by announcing to send back its High Commissioner to India, Sohail Mahmood, to New Delhi on March 6.

Mahmood was called back to Islamabad for consultations in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack that was carried out by Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) on February 14. Mahmood left New Delhi on February 18. Pakistan, on Tuesday night, also put Jamaat-ul-Da'awa (JuD) and its sister-organisation Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), which are the front organisations of Lashkar-e-Taiba terror outfit, in the banned list under Anti Terrorism Act 1997.

However, there has been no new action by Pakistan against JeM, which was put in the proscribed list in 2002. There has been intense global pressure against Pakistan to stop supporting terrorists and terror outfits after India mounted a diplomatic campaign in this regard. Succumbing to this, Pakistan launched a crackdown against terror outfits, taking JeM kingpin Masood Azhar's brother and son, along with 42 other activists of banned outfits, into "preventive detention".

(With inputs from agencies.)