Advani urges Musharraf to visit Ajmer Sharif and Akshardham

New Delhi, Feb 8 (UNI) Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L K Advani today hailed the Pakistan Government's initiative to renovate the famous Katasraj shrine near Lahore and said the project would help promote trust and goodwill between India and Pakistan.

In a letter to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, Mr Advani said he had been given the honour of inaugurating the renovation of the Katasraj shrine during his visit to Pakistan in June 2005.

Recalling Gen Musharraf's statement that after completion of the project, Hindu devotees from India would be welcome to visit the Katasraj temples in the same way as thousands of Pakistani pilgrims visited Ajmer Sharif and other holy sites in India every year, he said, ''I eagerly look forward to that day.'' The senior BJP leader also urged Gen Musharraf and former Pakistan Prime Minister Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain to come to India at their ''early convenience'' and visit Ajmer Sharif and the newly constructed Akshardham temple and cultural complex in Delhi.

Mr Advani also wrote a separate letter to Chaudhary Shujaat, expressing happiness about newspaper reports that the Pakistan Government would send a team of archaeologists to visit Indian temples for carrying out renovation of the Katasraj temples, believed to have been built by the Pandavas.

A Pakistan archaeological department delegation, headed by Orya Maqbool Abbasi, had told Mr Advani after his 2005 Pakistan visit that the first phase of the Katasraj Shrine renovation would be completed in 2007 and a contingent of Hindu pilgrims from India could visit the temple on Maha Shivaratri.

UNI