Mumbai: Officials said to PTI that a meeting between India and Pakistan was started here on Thursday for the establishment of a corridor connecting Gurdwara Durbar Sahib in the Pakistani city of Kartarpur with Gurdaspur district of Punjab between India and Pakistan.
This is the first meeting to discuss the issue of Kartarpur corridor between India and Pakistan, in which the tension between the two countries has increased due to the Pulwama terror attack, followed by India’s camps in Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) camps. East air strikes. Later retribution of Balakot and Pakistan.
Apart from meeting pro-Khalistan campaign in New Delhi, besides asking for Sikh pilgrims visiting pilgrimage in Pakistan, there is the possibility of raising the issue of hassle-free access to Indian pilgrims.
From the Indian side, the officials of the Union Home Ministry, Ministry of External Affairs, BSF, Indian National Highways Authority and the Government of Punjab were involved.
The Kartarpur corridor was first proposed by the Prime Ministers of Pakistan and India, Nawaz Sharif and Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the beginning of 1999, respectively, as part of Delhi-Lahore bus diplomacy.
In August 2018, Punjab’s Tourism Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu participated in the inauguration ceremony of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, and to launch Dera Baba Nanak-Kartarpur corridor on Guru Nanak’s 550th birth anniversary, Pakistan’s army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa said. Given the clear time limit, this ball rolling sets.
In August 2018, another resolution related to the corridor in the Punjab assembly was transferred by Amarinder Singh, which was passed unanimously. After this, the Punjab government decided to contact the Prime Minister of India regarding the inauguration of the corridor. On October 30, 2018, a group of Sikh Americans sought help from the Prime Minister of India for help in opening the corridor.
In November 2018, the Indian Cabinet approved the plan to set up the corridor and appealed to Pakistan to do the same. The Pakistani foreign minister S. M. Qureshi responded by tweeting that Pakistan had “already conveyed to India” that it would open a corridor
On November 26, 2018, Indian Vice-President, Venkaiah Naidu laid the foundation stone of the Dera Baba Nanak-Kartarpur Sahib corridor in a village honour in Gurdaspur district of Punjab, India.
On November 28, 2018, Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan laid the foundation stone of the Kartarpur corridor near the Narowal district of Punjab, Pakistan. Union Minister of India, Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri were present in the ceremony. Apart from this, Navjot Singh Sidhu and Member of Parliament from Amritsar Gurjeet Singh Aujla were also present.
