Bhubaneswar: Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India Sohail Mahmood on Monday met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the State Secretariat here and congratulated him for successfully hosting Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup-2018.
Soon after the courtesy call, the Pakistan High Commissioner told media, “I congratulated him and the people of Bhubaneswar as well as Odisha for hosting the World Cup and that’s the reason for me to come here. Last evening I watched a match. It is a great contribution to the field of hockey.”
On Sunday, Pakistan suffered a 1-5 defeat against the Netherlands at Kalinga Stadium here but still sneaked into the knock-out stage of the World Cup.
Naveen and Mahmood reportedly also discussed on people-to-people contact between Pakistan and Odisha as well as cultural exchange in the form of tourism, sources said.
