TASHKENT - For what can be termed as 'the third round of cricket diplomacy, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani will undertake a two-day official visit to India on March 29 to be present at the Mohali Cricket Stadium to watch the first semi-final between India and Pakistan on March 30. Mr Gilani has happily accepted the invitation, and the acceptance has since been conveyed to New Delhi through diplomatic channels. Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh extended an invitation to both President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani to visit India to grace the unique event of the two Asian giants playing the semi-final of the ICC World Cup. Will the two prime ministers avail the opportunity to hold informal discussion on bilateral issues, is not clear yet. But in the past, whenever such an opportunity arose, the Pak-India leaders always picked up the thread from where it was left off. It may be recalled that on February 21, 1987, the late president Ziaul Haq watched the second day of the lone Pakistan-India Test match at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium at the invitation of the then Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. Ziaul Haq made a daring decision and crossed over to India at a critical moment as Indian and Pakistani armies were eyeball to eyeball on the border between the two countries. On the other hand, the environment was very hostile on the conflict of Kashmir. He was accompanies by a big delegation of 68 officials and businessmen. In 2004, the Indian cricket team visited Pakistan for the first full tour in more than a decade. It was termed as the Friendship Series. Similarly, on April 17, 2005, then president Pervez Musharraf and prime minister Manmohan Singh watched the last ODI at Delhis Feroze Shah Kotla Grounds. Previously, those who carried out cricket diplomacy were military dictators and their efforts could not pave the way for a peaceful solution to the core issue. This time round, it is the elected leadership whom Manmohan has extended invitation to. When the Foreign Office was contacted for details of the proposed visit, an official said that there is no question that both the president and the prime minister would go to India. Decision would be announced within the next 24 hours as to who is going to watch the semi-final game in Mohali. To a question, the official said the Foreign Office was in touch with the Indian External Affairs Ministry to finalise the date and other details of the visit. It is too early to say if there would be any formal or informal round of talks between the two prime ministers. Diplomatic sources confided to TheNation that President Zardari is very sensitive about his personal security. Therefore, there is less likelihood of him going to India and exposing himself to such a big crowd amid tensions between the two teams and the spectators running very high, sources added Diplomatic observers, meantime, have doubted Dr Manmohans intention and are of the view that he is trying to hoodwink the world community by creating an impression that India is willing to resolve the burning issues by interacting with the Pakistani leadership. They hold a firm view that if India is sincere in addressing the Kashmir dispute, it should resume the suspended composite dialogue without any further delay and should desist from setting any preconditions. In their opinion, the Pakistani leadership should foil all attempts made by India to sidetrack the Kashmir issue. It may be recalled that activists of extremist Hindu organisations, including of RSS and BJP, have already threatened that they would not allow the team Pakistan to play on the Indian pitches.