Katarpur comes closer ahead of 550th birth anniversary of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji
India and Pakistan have signed an agreement on the Kartarpur Corridor today, i.e., Thursday, October 24, 2019, to allow Indian Sikh pilgrims from India to visit the Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara in Punjab Province of Pakistan.
The officials of India and Pakistan met at Zero Point near Dera Baba Nanak in the border town of Gurdaspur to sign the Memorandum of Understanding. (MoU).
As of now, pilgrims from India have to take a bus to Lahore to get to Kartarpur, which is a 125 kms. journey. As a matter of fact, Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur is easily visible from the Indian side of the border. Once inaugurated, the Karatrpur Corridor will allow Sikh pilgrims from India to visit the Gurdwara in Kartarpur, which is 4.7 kms. from border, without a visa.
As per the agreement, the pilgrims would come in the morning and return in the evening same day. Everyday 5,000 Indian pilgrims will be allowed to visit the holy shrine. The Kartarpur Corridor will be open throughout the year, except on notified days which will be informed in advance.
Speaking on the occasion, Joint Secretary (Internal Security) – C.L. Das said, “Indian pilgrims of all faiths and persons of Indian origin can use the Kartarpur corridor. The travel will be visa-free. Pilgrims need to carry only a valid passport.”
He added, “The Pakistan side has agreed to make sufficient provision for langar and distribution of prasad in the Gurdwara premises. On our side, all the required infrastructure, including the highway and the passenger terminal building are nearing completion for timely inauguration of the corridor.”
The MoU was initially supposed to be signed on October 23, 2019 but got delayed due to ongoing discussions between the 2 nations over the visa travel fee of U.S. $ 20 which Pakistan has decided to charge from every Sikh pilgrim using the corridor.
Expressing disappointment over fee, the Ministry of External Affairs, India said in a statement, “It is a matter of disappointment that while understanding has been reached on most of the elements for facilitating the visit of pilgrims from India, Pakistan continues to insist on levying a service fee of USD 20 per pilgrim per visit.”
It further read, “While agreeing to sign the agreement, the Government of Pakistan has been once again urged to reconsider its insistence to levy service fee on pilgrims. India would be ready to amend the agreement accordingly at any time.”
Speaking on the fee, Amarinder Singh tweeted, “I appeal to @ImranKhanPTI to withdraw $20 fee imposed by @pid_gov on pilgrims to Kartarpur Sahib to facilitate ‘khulle darshan deedar’ of the final resting place of SRI Guru Nanak Dev Ji. The world Sikh community will be grateful to you for this gesture.”
I appeal to @ImranKhanPTI to withdraw $20 fee imposed by @pid_gov on pilgrims to Kartarpur Sahib to faciliate ‘khulle darshan deedar’ of the final resting place of SRI Guru Nanak Dev Ji. The world Sikh community will be grateful to you for this gesture.
— Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) October 18, 2019
From the Indian side, the Prime Minister of India – Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Kartarpur Corridor on November 9, 2019 and will send the first batch of Sikh pilgrims to Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara in Punjab Province of Pakistan.
The Former Prime Minister of India – Manmohan Singh will be a part of the Sikh delegation which will be led by the Chief Minister of Punjab, India – Amarinder Singh. The delegation would return to India on the same day.
From Pakistan side, the Prime Minister of Pakistan – Imran Khan will inaugurate the Kartarpur Corridor. The Kartarpur Corridor was first proposed in early 1999 by the then Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan – Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif, respectively. The foundation stone for the Kartarpur Corridor was laid down on the Indian side on November 26, 2018. Two days later, the foundation stone was laid down on the Pakistani side.
Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur is built on the historic site where Guru Nanak settled and assembled the Sikh commune after his missionary travels. The present gurdwara is built on the site where Guru Nanak Dev left for heavenly abode September 22, 1539.
The 4.2 km-long corridor from the Indian side will be completed by October 31, 2019, a week before the celebrations begin to mark the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.
Separately, it is believed that the opening of Kartarpur Corridor will help in de-escalating the tension between India and Pakistan which has hit the new high after Pakistan based terror group – Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) carried out a heinous terror attack in Pulwama region of India, killing more than 40 Indian Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF) personnel. In response, India carried out a surgical strike in Balakot, eliminating more than 250 terrorists and uprooting the terror group’s camps.
Post this, Pakistan started interfering in India’s internal matter regarding the abrogation of Articles 35(A) and 370 in Jammu & Kashmir. It urged the international community to intervene and approached the U.N. However, it failed to garner any support as the abrogation of the Articles 35(A) and 370 are an internal matter of India.
It is to be noted that Paris based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has issued a stern warning to the terror promoting nation Pakistan, to swiftly comply with the complete 27 action points by February 2020 or face getting ‘blacklisted’.
Talking about Pakistan’s economy, it will only get worse. This retention in ‘Grey List’ means downgrading by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Union (E.U.). The downgrading will make it impossible for Pakistan to procure fresh funds to revive its economy.
