Islamabad, Nov 28 (TNS): Prime Minister Imran Khan will perform the groundbreaking of the corridor connecting Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur area of Narowal district to Dera Baba Nanak in India’s Gurdaspur district today.
The Pakistan government will open the four-kilometre-long corridor on the Guru Nanak’s 550th birth anniversary.
Thousands of Sikh devotees from India visit Pakistan every year to celebrate the birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak. This year — for the 549th birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak — the Pakistan embassy in New Delhi issued over 3,500 visas to Sikh pilgrims who wished to attend the celebrations.
Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal, before leaving for Kartarpur, hailed the groundbreaking as a monumental event “which will open many opportunities for both Pakistan and India”, Radio Pakistan reported.
The Pakistan government had extended invitation to three Indian politicians, including Congress leader and Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, and 17 journalists and editors from across the border for the event.
While Indian Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and Indian Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh declined to attend the groundbreaking with thanks, former Indian cricketer Sidhu accepted the invitation.
The Indian delegation — comprising minister for food Harsimrat Kaur Badal, minister for housing Hardeep S. Puri and Sidhu — were received by officials of the Pakistan Rangers (Punjab) at the Wagah border on Tuesday. Some journalists from India also reached Lahore through the border.
“The corridor will bring peace and prosperity for the people of both countries and it will also prove to be a foundation stone of brotherhood,” Sidhu said while addressing a press conference at the Lahore Press Club.
On Monday, Indian Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh laid the foundation stone of the Kartarpur corridor in Gurdaspur district.
Long-awaited corridor opening
Kartarpur is located in Shakargarh in Narowal district of Pakistan’s Punjab province. Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism, had spent more than 18 years of his life there. The Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara is located on the banks of the Ravi River, about three-four kilometres from the border in Pakistan.
The proposal for the corridor has been on the table since 1988, when Pakistan and India agreed in principle to construct a corridor from Dera Baba Nanak, in India, to Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan, but tense relations between the two countries prevented progress on the plan.
In the absence of the corridor, Sikh devotees gather near the border fence and offer prayers with Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib in sight, with some of them even using binoculars to better view the temple.
The Pakistan government had in early September proposed to open the Kartarpur border crossing with India for Sikh pilgrims to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib without visa. Earlier, Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa had hinted at opening the Kartarpur border on the occasion of Baba Guru Nanak’s birth anniversary next year for Sikh pilgrims when he met cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu during the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Khan.
Islamabad announced the date for the groundbreaking ceremony of the corridor only after the Indian Union cabinet recently agreed to avail the offer of the passageway in view of the 550th birth anniversary of the founder of the Sikh faith, Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji, next year.
According to the proposal, the Indian government will construct and develop the Kartarpur corridor from Dera Baba Nanak in Indian Punjab’s Gurdaspur district to the border, while Pakistan will build the other part of the corridor connecting the border to the Gurdwara in the Kartarpur Sahib area of Narowal.
