Kartarpur Corridor row: Amarinder Singh says Navjot Sidhu to clarify on posters in Amritsar hailing Imran Khan as hero of deal

Chandigarh: Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday said that Navjot Singh Sidhu can only explain the posters in Amritsar, which hail Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan as one of the real heroes of the Kartarpur Corridor. “It is entirely up to Sidhu to explain these posters. I do not want to explain as he can tell us better on this matter. He had sought permission from me to visit Pakistan. I have forwarded his request to the Ministry of External Affairs. Now it is for the Ministry whether to allow him to visit Pakistan or not,” the chief minister told reporters. Earlier on Wednesday, the posters of Sidhu and Imran were put up in Amritsar to thank the two for their contributions towards the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor. Some posters read, “Navjot Singh Sidhu and Imran Khan are the real heroes for opening the Kartarpur Corridor.” [caption id=“attachment_5499881” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh. AFP[/caption] Claiming that Pakistan has a “hidden agenda” behind the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor, Singh said: “I have been maintaining for long that Pakistan has a hidden agenda.” “On one hand, they will first show us love and on the other, they can try to foment trouble. We have to be very careful on the note the things that are moving ahead,” he cautioned. Singh’s remarks come after a video, released by Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Monday, has posters of Bhindranwale, Major General Shabeg Singh and Amrik Singh Khalsa, present in the background of the video. All three Khalistani separatists were killed during the Indian Army’s Operation Blue Star at the Golden Temple in Amritsar in June 1984. Bhindranwale was the head of Sikh religious sect Damdami Taksal. Shabeg was an Indian Army General, who joined the Khalistani movement in 1984 after he was stripped of his rank and court-martialled on charges of corruption just before his retirement. Khalsa was a Khalistani student leader, who headed the now-banned All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSD). A fringe Khalistani group based in the US called ‘Sikhs for Justice’ is attempting to promote the so-called ‘Referendum 2020’ movement by using the Corridor with tacit support from Pakistan’s spy agency ISI. The video has surfaced just days before the Kartarpur corridor is slated to be inaugurated.  While Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Corridor on the Indian side on 8 November, his Pakistani counterpart will open the route on the other side the following day. India and Pakistan had, on 24 October, signed an agreement on the modalities for operationalising the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor, paving the way for its inauguration ahead of the 550th birth anniversary of Sikh faith founder Guru Nanak Dev. The Corridor will facilitate visa-free movement of Indian pilgrims, who will have to just obtain a permit to visit Kartarpur Sahib, which was established in 1522 by Guru Nanak Dev. The route will connect Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district with Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara in Pakistan.