Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday performed the ground-breaking of the four kilometers long Kartarpur Corridor.
The event is being attended by Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Afridi, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, Minister for Religious Affairs Noorul Haq Qadri and Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed, as well as Indian ministers, foreign diplomats, Sikh yatris and a delegation of Indian journalists.
The Indian delegation includes Minister for Food Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Minister for Housing Hardeep S. Puri, Indian Punjab Minister for Local Government and Tourism and former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu.
As the event commenced, a film about the pilgrimage of members of the Sikh community to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib was aired for the audience.
Federal Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Noorul Haq Qadri took the stage first and termed the ground-breaking as an important event of history. He asserted that Kartarpur gurdwara will be made into a state-of-the-art gurdwara.
Former cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu thanked PM Khan for opening the corridor and expressed good wishes.
“India’s Constitution says there will be no discrimination on the basis of caste or creed. Baba Guru Nanak said this 549 years ago,” Sidhu said. Religion should never be seen through politics and terrorism, he added.
Sidhu stressed that peace should prevail now as there had been enough bloodshed.
“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,” says Sidhu.
Visibly emotional Indian Minister for Food Harsimrat Kaur Badal went on to say that she had never thought of visiting Pakistan but is now here on this historic day. “I saw the corridor becoming a reality in Indian Punjab there and now I am seeing it here,” she said.
“When the wall of Berlin can be brought down, then hatred between India and Pakistan can be brought down too with opening of Kartarpur Corridor. It can be a new beginning in the name of Baba Nanak who said ‘na koi Hindu na koi Musalman lekin ek Onkar,” she declared.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi maintained in his address that Guru Nanak gave the message of peace and love. Kartarpur Corridor will be able to reduce mutual distances.
The four-kilometre-long visa-free corridor will be opened on the Guru Nanak’s 550th birth anniversary next year by Pakistan government.
Kartarpur Corridor
The corridor will connect Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur area of Narowal district with Dera Baba Nanak in India’s Gurdaspur District.
Pakistan will build the corridor from the Indian border to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur while the other part from Dera Baba Nanak in Indian Punjab’s Gurdaspur district upto the border will be constructed by India.
It will facilitate the Sikh pilgrims visiting their most sacred sites in Pakistan. The initiative for opening the corridor was taken by Pakistan which was later endorsed by the Indian side.
The initiative has widely been lauded both in Pakistan and India as a step towards building bridges between the two countries.
Kartarpur will be peace Corridor between India, Pakistan: Sidhu
Earlier, talking to media after arriving at Wagah Border, former Indian Cricketer and Minister of Indian Punjab Navjot Singh Sidhu said that Kartarpur will be peace Corridor between two countries. Sidhu stressed that the religion should never be seen with political eye.
He thanked Prime Minister Imran Khan and said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has fulfilled its promise by initiating cordial relations.
Sidhu added that Indian people are waiting for Pakistan-India cricket matches as well.
