Imran Khan speaks to Hasina over phone before her India trip

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has spoken with his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina over telephone on the eve of the beginning of her visit to India.

He rang Hasina up on Wednesday afternoon, her Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim said.

“They exchanged greetings. He (Imran Khan) inquired about the Bangladesh prime minister’s eye,” Karim said.

Hasina had recently undergone a surgery on her lef eye in London.  

She is scheduled to leave Dhaka for New Delhi on Thursday.

Hasina met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York and the two leaders are scheduled to meet again during her India visit next Saturday.

Khan had joined the UNGA as well, but had not held any meeting with Hasina or Modi.

The Pakistan prime minister called Hasina at a time when the hostility between the two nuclear-armed nations of South Asia has risen sharply in recent months over Muslim-majority Kashmir.

India recently stripped the Jammu and Kashmir State of its autonomy in a move that escalated tensions.

Officials of both the countries, including Khan and Modi, launched scathing attacks on each other over the Kashmir issue during the UNGA.