LAHORE, Feb 24: Leaders of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party (CPI-M), Harkishan Singh Surjeet and A. B. Bardhan, arrived here on Thursday evening.

They were greeted at the airport by workers of the Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP), the Communist Mazdoor Kisan Party (CMKP) and the Labour Party of Pakistan (LPP).

Some of the workers who gathered there to receive the Indian leaders clashed with journalists when the latter tried to approach the guests. CPP office-bearers, however, alleged that agencies' officials posing as workers had tried to stop journalists from covering the event.

A Haj flight landed at the same time and the workers who had occupied a major portion of the arrival lounge caused inconvenience to the pilgrims and their relatives.

Law-enforcement personnel present there stopped them from raising anti-government slogans and asked them to leave the lounge. The Indian leaders were whisked off the airport premises through another door where office-bearers of the leftist parties did not let the journalists talk to them.

A CPP office-bearer told Dawn that the Indian politicians had come here on the invitation of a federal minister and some leaders of leftist parties. During their stay in Lahore, the elderly Indian guests would meet the press, visit historical places, the old prison in Shadman, Mughalpura railway station and speak at Safma's seminar on the future of socialism in South Asia.

He said they were also expected to hold meetings with the president and the prime minister in Islamabad. They would then visit Karachi before their return home in the first week of March. Quoting Mr Bardhan, a CPP office-bearer said he welcomed the ongoing peace process between India and Pakistan and stressed on continuation of people-to-people contact.