Islamabad: Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan said he thinks there may be a better chance of peace talks with India if prime minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wins the general election due to begin on Thursday.
Khan said that if the next Indian government were led by the opposition Congress party, it might be too scared to seek a settlement with Pakistan, fearing a backlash from the right.
"Perhaps if the BJP wins, some kind of settlement could be reached," Khan said.
This was despite the massive alienation that Muslims in general were facing in Modi's India, said Khan, who took office last August.
"I never thought I would see what is happening in India right now," said the former international cricket star. "Muslim-ness is being attacked."
Khan said Indian Muslims he knew who many years ago had been happy about their situation in India were now very worried by extreme Hindu nationalism.
He said Modi, like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was electioneering based on "fear and nationalist feeling".
The BJP's pledge this week to propose stripping decades-old special rights from the people of Jammu and Kashmir, which prevent outsiders from buying property in the state, was a major concern, though it could also be electioneering, Khan said.
Khan did appear to offer India an olive branch, saying that Islamabad was determined to dismantle all Pakistan-based militias in the country, and that the government had full support from Pakistan's powerful army for the programme. Those to be dismantled include groups involved in Kashmir.
Relations between Pakistan and India, which have fought three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947, two over Kashmir, reached a crisis point in February after a suicide bombing killed 40 Indian paramilitary police in Kashmir.
Islamabad denied responsibility for the February 14 attack, which was claimed by Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed, but the bombing prompted India to carry out a cross border air strike against what it said was a militant training camp in Pakistan.
Pakistan responded with air strikes of its own.
Pollsters say Modi and the BJP's re-election bid got a boost from a wave of patriotism after the suicide bomb attack and the Indian government's fast response.
The rolling election is held in phases and does not finish until May 19. The result is not due until May 23.
