DHAKA: Indian premier Narendra Modi landed at Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport Friday (December 25) on a surprise visit, where Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif were present to receive him.

Television footage showed Modi exit his jet and embrace PM Nawaz, after which the two heads flew to Raiwind in a helicopter, reports Dawn.

This is the first time an Indian premier has visited Pakistan in more than a decade.

Modi said he would stop over in Lahore on his way to New Delhi from Afghanistan.

Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj, responding to Modi’s announcement, said on Twitter, ‘That’s like a statesman. Such should be the relationship between neighbours’.

India’s major opposition party, Congress, questioned Modi’s visit to Pakistan, saying serious information like this should not have been revealed through Twitter, reported Times of India.

‘It is unfortunate that we get to know about prime minister’s visit through a tweet... India and Pakistan relations are not so good as yet that he stops over there on his way back from another country,’ Congress spokesperson Ajoy Kumar told IANS.

Congress leader Manish Tewari called it an ‘adventure’ by the Indian prime minister.

Modi arrived in Kabul on Friday, where he inaugurated the country’s new parliament building, a project initiated by the Indian government in 2007 as a mark of friendship and cooperation to help rebuild war-torn Afghanistan.

The last meeting between Modi and Nawaz took place in November on the sidelines of the 21st UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, where the two premiers exchanged pleasantries and had a friendly chat.

BDST: 1846 HRS, DEC 25, 2015
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