Hamid Karzai to visit India on April 28

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai will be paying a short visit to India ahead of the SAARC summit, which starts in Bhutan capital Thimpu on April 28.

Karzai will be arriving in India on April 25 to hold bilateral discussions with the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other leaders.

This would be Karzai's first visit to India after his re-election as President. It assumes importance as it is taking place just before Karzai holds a Grand Jirga to reconcile with the so-called 'Good Taliban'.

New Delhi is seeing this move with skepticism.

According to diplomatic sources, Karzai is likely to allay New Delhi's fears on reconciliation with the Taliban and growing edge of Pakistan in the process.

Karzai is also expected to ensure and update India about the safety and security of Indians working in Afghanistan and the measures taken by Kabul for the safety of Indian projects in his country.

The progress of investigations into the attack on the Indian embassy and the growing net of Pakistan based terror outfits like the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, is also likely to be discussed.