Imran Khan said, “I want a strong relationship with India. Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership are on the same page on this.” (File photo)
Kartarpur corridor Highlights: Prime Minister Imran Khan 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 Gurdaspur district to facilitate visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims. The Kartarpur Corridor is expected to be completed within six months.
Last week, Pakistan followed up India’s decision to develop the Kartarpur corridor. Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said, “Pakistan has already conveyed to India its decision to open Kartarpur Corridor for Baba Guru Nanak’s 550th birth anniversary. We welcome the Sikh community to Pakistan for this auspicious occasion.”
Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu was India’s face on the ground Tuesday and called Kartarpur a “corridor of infinite possibilities.” A day before that, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh laid the foundation stone for the corridor on the Indian side in Gurdaspur. Pakistan had also invited Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh for the event. But, he declined to attend the event, citing continued terrorist attacks in his state and killings of Indian soldiers by Pakistan’s armed forces.
At Kartarpur in Jalandhar on Tuesday. (Express photo)
Eyebrows were raised on Wednesday when a prominent pro-Khalistan separatist leader was present at the ground-breaking ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor and was also seen shaking hands with Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa. When asked, a Pakistani official said, Gopal Singh is a senior leader of Pakistan Sikh Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee (PSGPC), and he was invited to all events involving the Sikh community. Singh is the general secretary of the PSGPC and is known as a pro-Khalistan voice. He was seen shaking hands with the Pakistan Army chief. Several other pro-Khalistan leaders were also present at the event.
India on Wednesday expressed its displeasure over Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan raising the issue of Kashmir in his speech during the ground-breaking ceremony for the development of the Kartarpur Corridor. Hitting out at Khan for politicising the “pious occasion”, the Ministry of External Affairs said Kashmir was an integral and inalienable part of India. “Deeply regrettable that Pakistan PM chose to politicise the pious occasion meant to realise the long pending demand of Sikh community to develop Kartarpur Corridor by making unwarranted reference to J&K, which is integral and inalienable part of India,” ANI quoted the MEA as saying. Read More
Pakistan PM Imran Khan assures the Sikh community that facilities at Kartarpur will be better for 550th birth celebrations for Guru Nanak Dev. "If France and Germany who fought several wars can live in peace, why not India and Pakistan. I want a strong relationship with India. Pakistan's civilian and military leadership are on the same page on this," the Pakistan PM said.
Talking about Navjot Singh Sidhu, Imran Khan says, "I heard there was a lot of criticism of Sidhu when he went back after my oath-taking ceremony. I don't know why was he criticised. He was just talking about peace & brotherhood. He can come and contest election here in Pakistan's Punjab, he'll win."
Imran Khan says, "The only issue between us is Kashmir, all it needs is just two capable leadership to resolve this issue. Just imagine the potential we have if our relationships get strong."
Pakistan PM Imran Khan says, "Happiness I saw today was like of those Muslims who are standing 4 km away from Medina on other side of the border, but are unable to visit it, but when they get chance to visit it, the happiness they get is the happiness they are relishing today.
"We should welcome the fact that both the governments are committed to building the infrastructure on the respective sides of the border. In fact, when I was attending the function at Dera Baba Nanak (Gurdaspur, for foundation stone laying event of Kartarpur corridor on the Indian side), Union minister Nitin Gadkari said that he is hopeful that the corridor (on Indian side) would be completed in four months," Puri said. Puri refuted claims that the Government of India had set the date of November 26 as foundation stone laying function of the Kartarpur corridor only after the Pakistan dispensation announced the date of its groundbreaking ceremony. "Let me place on record that we were doing preparations several months earlier."
Expressing hope, Puri said there is an opportunity here that the demand of the Sikh community has been met, but "we need to operationalise the decision and operationalising the decision, making the corridor operative and to take this process further will require actions by all the stakeholders". He said, "Let us take one step at a time, I don't want to jump the gun. I think we must allow the goodwill, that is the essence of teachings of the guru. I think he was half a century ahead of his time. The kind of teachings he has given, if those teachings can be invoked to resolve our problems, it would be a very proud day for me as a Sikh".
Puri said, "This decision is anchored in hope and goodwill, but we have to be acutely conscious of the ground realities. The ground realities are that the two countries, on account of a lot of factors and I don't want to enter into any political discussion here, because of several factors there is distrust, we have felt for very long that we have been at the receiving end of actions of a country, of a state, which should not have allowed certain forces on their territory. But I don't want to touch upon those". Asked if the decision to develop the Kartarpur corridor would mean breaking of ice between the two nations, he said, "You have to be aware of the ground realities. You have to be aware of mistrust which exists. But as the prime minister said, now whether we are able to transform this into something meaningful in terms of people to people contact and breaking of the ice and taking it further, that is something we will have to work on."
Hardeep Singh Puri, the Union minister of state (independent charge) of Housing and Urban Affairs, told reporters at Attari in Amritsar district before crossing to Pakistan that the long pending demand of the Sikh community has been met. "It is a historic day. Speaking on my own behalf, I regard myself as particularly privileged and blessed to be able to make this pilgrimage. Paying obeisance at the Gurdwara Sahib holds special significance in the life of every Sikh. Not only did the Guru Nanak spent 18 years of his life there, it is his resting place also," he told reporters. Puri, a former diplomat, thanked the Pakistan government for its decision to build the corridor on its side. — PTI
Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal says, "If the Berlin Wall can fall, hatred between India and Pakistan can also end."
Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri, who represented the Indian government at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor in Pakistan, said Wednesday the corridor was anchored in hope and goodwill but there is need to be conscious of ground realities. Puri, along with Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, crossed over to the neighbouring country through Attari-Wagah land route in Amritsar to attend the ceremony.
Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu says, "Violence must stop and peace should return to the region." "Both the governments should realise that we have to move forward. My father used to tell me that Punjab Mail went till Lahore, I believe that it can go further till Peshawar, till Afghanistan," he says.
Navjot Singh Sidhu says: "Long live India, long live Pakistan. My yaar, dildaar Imran Khan has ended 70 years of wait."
Declining to attend the event held today in Pakistan, Amarinder Singh Tuesday targeted Pakistan Army chief General Army Chief General Qamar Jawed Bajwa and said, “The Pakistan PM should rein in his army as the ISI, which works under the army, works against us. Such army chiefs (referring to Bajwa) should understand that we have a bigger army than they have, and we are fully prepared. There is a limit… If you do it (provoke) repeatedly, then India will also have to think,” said Singh, adding, “Nobody wants war. We want peace and development.”
In a speech that lasted about 20 minutes, Singh spent about 15 minutes talking about terrorism emanating from Pakistan against India and the killings of soldiers on the Line of Control.
Spokesperson Pakistan Armed Forces Maj Gen Asif Ghafoo also confirms the arrival of Pakistan Army chief.
Responding to questions by media on whether India ould participate in the SAARC summit, Sushma Swaraj said, "Bilateral dialogue and Kartarpur corridor are two different things." Read |India will not participate in SAARC unless Pakistan ends terror
"I am very happy that for the last 20 years, India has been asking for the Kartarpur Corridor and for the first time Pakistan has agreed to it now," said Swaraj. Further, she said, "The moment Pakistan stops terrorist activities in India, the dialogue can start. The dialogue is not only connected to Kartarpur colony."
Ahead of the Kartarpur ceremony in Pakistan, Sushma Swaraj addressed the media and said even though India has agreed to build the corridor and is happy for the initiative, however, it does not mean the bilateral dialogue will start because of this. Further, she said India will not participate in the SAARC summit as some difficult inter-border issues.
On Tuesday, Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal had declared in Islamabad that Pakistan will invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the next SAARC summit in the country. The SAARC summit in 2016 was to be held in Islamabad but was called after the terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp in J&K’s Uri that killed 18 soldiers.
Indian delegation including Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri reach Wagah border. "This has been raised by us at the bilateral level. 22nd nov we had taken a cabinet decision. this means we were doing the prepaprtions several months earlier," said Puri. While Badal said the two nations took a historic decision and described it as an emotional moment.
Hardeep Singh Puri, one of two people nominated by Sushma Swaraj to visit Lahore for the stone laying at Kartarpur, calls the present journey as the "most momentous".
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh received support from three Hindu leaders of Punjab Congress, who hails his decision to not attend the stone laying ceremony in Lahore.
No Sikh leader has openly come out in support of Singh's stand. Sikh leaders in the party who spoke to The Indian Express on condition of anonymity said that if Amarinder’s plan was to keep Hindus on his side, it was ill-timed, as he should have realised that the historic importance of both the issue and the event was not the occasion for vote-bank politics.
Read more |Three Hindu state Congress leaders come out in Amarinder’s support
“It is like dream come true. We always wanted it but we were convinced that the tension between the two countries would never allow the corridor to become reality. But now it is happening. We pray to God that people can start visiting Kartarpur sahib as soon as possible,” said Krishan Kumar, owner of a medical shop that has existed from before Partition.
“I have come from Patiala. I hope next time I will be able to cross the border and visit Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib. It should be constructed as soon as possible,” said Lakhwinder Singh, a devotee who had come from Patiala to view the gurudwara through the binoculars.
Read more |At border town, they say ‘dream come true’
A day after Pakistan and India announced they would develop a corridor on both sides of the border, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave an example of the fall of the Berlin Wall to underline the potential transformative nature of the diplomatic move.
“Kisne socha that ki Berlin ki deewar gir sakti hai. Shayad Guru Nanak Devji ke aashirwad se Kartarpur ka corridor sirf corridor nahi, jan-jan ko jodne ka bahut of pilgrims’ progress bada kaaran ban sakta hai (Who thought the Berlin Wall would fall. May be, with the blessings of Guru Nanak Devji, Kartarpur corridor will not only be a corridor but can be a reason to bring people together,” Modi said Friday at a function to mark the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev at the New Delhi home of Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur.
Read more |Citing Berlin Wall, PM Narendra Modi holds out promise of pilgrims’ progress
The visa-free corridor for Sikhs from India to Pakistan’s Kartarpur Sahib, revered as the place where Guru Nanak is said to have spent his final days and where he breathed his last, seems to have become possible not through an agreement between India and Pakistan, but with one side deciding not to oppose what the other had decided, writes Nirupama Subramanian. Instead, both are actively, and competitively, claiming ownership of a move that is a big leap forward for people-to-people relations.
Whether the announcements were a coordinated two-step by the two countries, despite the big chill in their relationship, is unclear. If that is the case, it would point to a deep, ongoing back-channel process. But what is apparent is that India decided to get on board the initiative because it did not want to be upstaged by Pakistan, which proposed it first. India could not be seen denying its Sikh community what Pakistan was ready to roll out for it.
Read more |How India and Pakistan came on board
Three kilometers from the Indian-Pakistan border, Gurdwara Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur is built at the resting place of Guru Nanak. He assembled a Sikh community and lived here for 18 years until his death in 1539.
However, Indian are not allowed to visit the shrine and therefore, the corridor would allow devotees to walk to the shrine and return in a day without a passport or a visa.
Read more | What is Sikh pilgrim corridor to Pakistan