Kartarpur Corridor: Imran Khan lays foundation stone in Pakistan; Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Navjot Singh Sidhu attend ceremony
The Kartarpur corridor, which will facilitate the visa-free travel of Indian Sikh pilgrims to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, is expected to be completed within six months.
Kartarpur: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday laid the foundation stone for a corridor linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Kartarpur — the final resting place of Sikh faith's founder Guru Nanak Dev — to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Gurdaspur district to facilitate visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims.
Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan is located across the river Ravi, about four kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine. It was established by the Sikh Guru in 1522.
The first Gurdwara, Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib, was built here, where Guru Nanak Dev is said to have died.
Related Articles
The Kartarpur corridor, which will facilitate the visa-free travel of Indian Sikh pilgrims to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, is expected to be completed within six months.
The development comes ahead of Guru Nanak's 550th birth anniversary in 2019. Thousands of Sikh devotees from India visit Pakistan every year to celebrate the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak.
Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan, and his foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, with India's Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu. Twitter/@PTIofficial
India had proposed the corridor to Pakistan around 20 years back.
India was represented by Union ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri at the event. Punjab cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu also attended the ceremony.
Last week, Pakistan and India announced that they would develop the corridor on their respective side of the border to help Indian pilgrims visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur.
India-Pakistan ties nose-dived in recent years with no bilateral talks taking place. The ties between the two countries had strained after the terror attacks by Pakistan-based groups in 2016.
Pakistan had invited External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who thanked her Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi for the invite and said she was unable to travel to Kartarpur Sahib due to prior commitments.
The issue of Kartarpur Sahib came into focus after Sidhu visited Pakistan in August to attend the oath-taking ceremony of his cricketer-turned-politician friend Imran Khan as prime minister of that country.
After his return, Sidhu said that Pakistan Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa had told him that Pakistan may open a corridor to Kartarpur Sahib.
Sidhu has already arrived in Lahore with a group of Indian journalists to attend the ground breaking ceremony on Wednesday.
also read
Lahore HC grants bail to former PM Imran Khan's wife in graft case
Imran Khan was arrested by the country's anti-graft agency last week, prompting violent protests across the country.
Pakistan: Former PM Imran Khan says 80 per cent chance of my arrest on Tuesday
The PTI Chief accused former Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa of attempting to destabilise his government, saying that he doesn't understand why the latter attempted to destabilise him.
Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan gets luxury tax notice worth Pkr 14 lakhs for Lahore residence
Imran Khan, the cricketer-turned-politician, was ousted from power in April last year after losing a no-confidence vote in his leadership, which he alleged was part of a US-led conspiracy targeting him because of his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia, China and Afghanistan.