In 2008, the Indian foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee raised with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi the idea of "visa-free travel" to Kartarpur.[1][2][34] There was apparently no official response, but privately, Pakistan began to express its openness to the Sikh community.[4][35][36] However, even up to 2012, the Indian government had no response.[23] The hostility between the countries was apparently to blame.[7][34]