, Mar 7 (PTI) Pakistan's newly-elected Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday thanked his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi for felicitating him on his re-election.

Sharif, 72, took the oath as prime minister of Pakistan on Monday, assuming the cash-strapped country's reins for a second time, nearly a month after an inconclusive election marred by allegations of vote rigging.

"Thank you @narendramodi for felicitations on my election as the Prime Minister of Pakistan,” Sharif said in a post on X.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Modi congratulated Shehbaz on taking oath as the 24th prime minister of Pakistan.

"Congratulations to @CMShehbaz on being sworn in as the Prime Minister of Pakistan," Modi posted on X.

In his victory speech in the National Assembly soon after he was elected as the 24th prime minister and for a second time since 2022, Sharif said his government would not allow the country to become part of some "great game" and would maintain cordial relations with neighbours based on the principles of equality.

"We will keep ties with neighbours on the basis of equality,” he said.

Sharif, however, raked up the Kashmir issue and equated it with Palestine.

Ties between India and Pakistan strained after a terror attack on the Pathankot Air Force base in 2016 by terror groups based in the neighbouring country.

The relationship nosedived after India’s warplanes pounded a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp deep inside Pakistan on February 26, 2019, in response to the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF jawans were killed.

The relations deteriorated further after India announced the withdrawal of the special powers of Jammu and Kashmir and the bifurcation of the state into two union territories in August 2019.

India has repeatedly told Pakistan that Jammu and Kashmir “was, is and shall forever” remain an integral part of the country. New Delhi has told Islamabad that it desires normal neighbourly relations with it in an environment free of terror, hostility and violence. PTI ZH AKJ ZH

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