ISLAMABAD: The government said on Thursday it was unaware about Al Qaeda fighters relocating from Pakistan to Syria.

`We have no information how Al Qaeda could be travelling from Pakistan to Syria,` Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said at the weekly media briefing.

She was commenting on a reported statement of CIA director John Brennan before a House of Representatives panel in which he, on the basis of intelligence reports, claimed that Al Qaeda strategists were moving from Pakistan to Syria to lay foundation for future attacks in Europe and the United States by recruiting Western militants fighting the Assad regime alongside the rebels.

The spokesperson said the US had not shared the intelligence with Pakistan.

The US intelligence notwithstanding there have been multiple local reports about militants, including those associated with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, travelling to Syria to bolster the rebel ranks. But the government has been in a denial mode.

Pakistani militants, reports indicate, alone form the largest group of foreign fighters in Syria.

The debate on Saudi donation of $1.5 billion has swerved into denials by the government about Pakistan deploying troops abroad. However, the core issue of militants` movement to Syria has largely gone unnoticed in the discussions in the policy-making circles.

IRAN: The spokesperson said the body of slain Iranian border guard was not found inside Pakistan.

Jaish al-Adl, the group that claims to have kidnapped five Iranian guards inFebruary had reportedly killed one of them. Iran has said that it holds Pakistan responsible for safety and security of the kidnapped guards. Islamabad has denied that the kidnapped guards are being held in Pakistan.

About the conversation between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on telephone on the issue of kidnapped guards, Ms Aslam said: `The tone of the discussions has been positive and friendly. We are neither apologetic nor we are expected to be aggressive.

She noted that despite the hostage crisis it was important that both countries had emphasised on `a very strong relationship`. She reiterated the government`s commitment to continue to work with Tehran for further strengthening the relationship.

INDIA: The spokesperson said that Prime Minister Sharif had in The Hague asked `common friends` to con-vince India to return to peace talks with Pakistan.

Her comments implied that Mr Sharif had not sought foreign mediation for resolving the Kashmir dispute.

`What the prime minister essentially said in The Hague is that if there is reluctance on Indian side to resolve this issue bilaterally, our common friends can help convince India to come to the negotiating table. It`s not an internal affair of India,` she said.

Urging the Indian leadership to make peace with Pakistan, the spokesperson said, `Now the choice we have is to move like other regions towards developing good neighbourly relations, forging economic ties, increasing people-to-people contacts so that people in this region can also benefit from regional trade and economic cooperation and connectivity. People in the region also deserve to reap the benefits of economic cooperation.