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New Delhi. India made it clear on Thursday that the Kartarpur corridor will not be opened at the moment. A batch of 1500 Sikh pilgrims will visit Pakistan from November 17 to 26 on the occasion of Guruparab, but this batch will not enter Pakistan through the Kartarpur corridor but through the Wagah-Attari border checkpoint. Sources told News18 that Pakistan’s attitude towards Indian Sikh pilgrims keeps changing frequently. Sources said that the decision to open the Kartarpur Corridor was not taken because of Pakistan’s sometimes yes and sometimes no.
Remind you that Pakistan did not allow Sikh pilgrims to come to Pakistan twice in the month of June. In which a program was made for Sikh pilgrims to go to Pakistan on the occasion of the martyrdom day of Arjun Dev ji and the death anniversary of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. To say that Pakistan has completed the first phase of the Kartarpur Corridor project, but it has not constructed the bridge connecting with India, while India has completed the work on its side. Apart from this, the issues related to 20 US dollars and passport required by Pakistan on pilgrims coming from India via Kartarpur Rahdari are yet to be resolved.
But on the completion of 2 years of the opening of the corridor on 9 November, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan and the Pakistan Foreign Ministry had advocated the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor. The Pakistan Foreign Ministry had said that it hoped that India would allow pilgrims to travel through the corridor to reach Kartarpur Sahib in the spirit of cooperation.
The Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday that the Kartarpur corridor was closed in March 2020 due to the Corona crisis. And very limited movement by land between the two countries is happening through the Wagah-Attari border checkpoint. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, in response to News18’s query, said that the batch of Sikh pilgrims going to Pakistan between November 17 and 26 will enter Pakistan from the Wagah-Attari border checkpoint. The Ministry of External Affairs said that this group will visit Gurdwara Nankana Sahib, Gurdwara Sri Darbar Sahib, Gurdwara Sri Panja Sahib, Gurdwara Sri Dera Sahib, Gurdwara Sri Kartarpur Sahib and Gurdwara Sri Sacha Sauda.
At the same time, politics has intensified in Punjab regarding the corridor. On the completion of 2 years of the opening of the corridor, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, Shiromani Akali Dal’s Harsimrat Kaur Badal, including many leaders of Punjab politics, demanded the reopening of the Kartarpur corridor.
Let us tell you that on November 9, 2019, this corridor was opened for devotees and within 129 days, about 63 thousand devotees had visited Kartarpur Gurdwara through the corridor.
