A Pakistani parliamentarian on Saturday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Minister of State of External Affairs VK Singh and held discussions with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on the sidelines of an event in Delhi, ANI reported.

Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, a member of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, told ANI that he assured the prime minister and the ministers that Pakistan had no involvement in the Pulwama terror attack, in which 40 security personnel were killed on February 14. “We should move in a positive direction, we want peace,” he said.

Vankwani was part of a foreign delegation invited to India to attend the Kumbh Mela by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations.

Vankwani said he will help mediate between the governments of India and Pakistan to defuse tension in the wake of the Pulwama attack, the Hindustan Times reported. “If you have any apprehension, tell me about it,” he said. “I will share it with my government,” PTI quoted him as saying at the event in Delhi.

Vankwani told The Express Tribune that he has communicated a “positive note” to Indian leaders and “I hope there will now be a change in their behaviour”. “I told the Indian foreign minister that in Pakistan its captain’s [Prime Minister Imran Khan’s] government now; he is a Pathan and he does what he says. We assure you that no Pakistani institution is involved in Pulwama attack. If India provides evidence, we will facilitate the investigation.”

Vankwani said he felt the relations between India and Pakistan were beginning to thaw after his meeting. “I told them that we need to get out of politics of accusations,” he said, adding that Modi hinted at a dialogue with Pakistan at a rally in Rajasthan.

Vankwani is the founder of the Pakistan Hindu Council and was earlier a member of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.