ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has received India’s invitation to attend the inauguration of prime minister-designate Narendra Modi and will decide soon whether the Pakistani leader would attend, the foreign office said.

“The invitation was received yesterday,” said a foreign office spokeswoman on Thursday.

Earlier, US welcomed hopes of better ties between India and Pakistan, but said it will not attend the inauguration. “Broadly speaking, we welcome increased engagement between India and Pakistan and their leaders and other... leaders in the region,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

More dialogue between the two neighbors “is a positive step,” Psaki added. But she revealed that as in past years Washington was not planning to attend the inauguration set for Monday.

“We don’t have any plans to send a representative from the United States. It’s standard for events and inaugurations in India, so it should come as no surprise,” she told reporters. Ties between Washington and New Delhi have chilled in recent months after the arrest of an Indian diplomat in New York on charges of abusing her maid.

And the election of the Hindu nationalist Modi has also posed a headache for Washington, which controversially refused him a visa to visit the United States in 2005 when he was chief minister of Gujarat.

The refusal stemmed from allegations he turned a blind eye or worse to anti-Muslim riots in the western state three years earlier.

Both President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have congratulated Modi on his election.

In a message sent to Kerry on his Twitter account, Modi talked about strengthening “relations between our 2 vibrant democracies in the years to come.”

Army hits terrorist camps for second day

Pakistani troops, artillery and helicopter gunships hit targets in the country’s tribal areas on Thursday, officials said, in a second day of military action against Taleban insurgents.

The attacks in North Waziristan, a militant stronghold on the Afghan border, destroyed hundreds of shops and houses, officials said.

They came a day after air strikes and ground fighting killed at least 71 suspected militants and four security personnel in the same area.

Local residents and officials said thousands had started fleeing toward the garrison town of Bannu in neighboring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa due to the unrest.

Intelligence officials told AFP that the bodies of two people killed in Thursday’s action had so far been recovered, but the full death toll may only come to light after the fighting has ended.

The violence comes as another blow to peace talks between the government and the Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP), which have made little progress since they began in February.

Troops backed by tanks, helicopter gunships and reconnaissance drones swung into action on Thursday, destroying shops and houses, local residents and officials said.

The official said a curfew had been imposed in the whole of North Waziristan.

“Artillery and helicopter gunships are targeting militant hideouts,” a local intelligence official in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan, told AFP.

He added that troops on the ground had begun a door to door search operation for militants.

“Troops also used explosives to blow up more than 100 houses belonging to militants in Machis Camp,” the official said, referring to the neighborhood on the outskirts of Miranshah which was once a camp for Afghan refugees but is now thought to be used by militants.

An official statement from the army said a military camp in Miranshah had come under attack from insurgents, who were successuly repelled.

In the nearby town of Mir Ali, the military also targeted militant hideouts and helicopters fired shells on suspected hide outs.

“The troops have destroyed about 300 shops in the main Mir Ali bazaar,” a local official told AFP. The military statement said two homemade bombs in the area were “neutralized.”

Local residents also said that the main power cable to the area was damaged in shelling and there was no electricity supply in the area since the previous night.

On Wednesday air force jets began the onslaught, bombarding targets in North Waziristan before ground battles between troops and insurgents.

Washington has long pressured Islamabad to carry out an operation to stamp out militant hideouts in North Waziristan, from where they launch attacks against US and NATO troops in Afghanistan.