Kartarpur Corridor

A year after the Pahalgam incident, India-Pakistan relations remain strained, with the Punjab international border largely shut. Restrictions have halted trade, suspended customary interactions, and altered the Attari retreat ceremony, despite Pakistan's global mediation role. The kartarpur corridor also remains closed, impacting religious travel.

Lukewarm response to the kartarpur corridor has given rise to the speculation that it may meet the Amritsar-Nankana Sahib bus service fate. There is not much enthusiasm seen among the pilgrims visiting Pakistan via the corridor.

After Pakistan reopened kartarpur corridor on its sides, India on Saturday said it will take a decision on the recommencement of travelling through the 4.7-kilometre-long passage that connects Dera Baba Nanak Sahib in India's Gurdaspur and Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Kartarpur, in accordance with Covid-19 protocol and easing of restrictions.

The kartarpur corridor was shut in March 2020, barely four months after it was inaugurated, in view of the Covid-19 outbreak. The latest decision seemed on the anvil in the wake of a delegation of BJP leaders from Punjab meeting Modi recently to request him to reopen the corridor.

Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Tuesday appealed to PM Narendra Modi to reopen the kartarpur corridor, ahead of the Prakash Purab (birth anniversary) of Sikh Guru Nanak Dev this month. Earlier today, Congress Punjab president Navjot Singh Sidhu visited the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur and offered prayers for the reopening of the kartarpur corridor.

They said India had proposed to Pakistan to hold technical level meetings in the first week of August to work out arrangements and finalise the alignment of the interim approach path for the kartarpur corridor, develop mechanism to share information about pilgrims between nodal points, develop mechanism to deal with exigencies that may arise in the use of the corridor.

Pakistan on Thursday accused India of delaying the delegation-level talks to finalise the agreement to operationalise the kartarpur corridor. Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Mohammad Faisal said, "Pakistan is keen that the kartarpur corridor becomes operational as per the schedule. However, the meetings are delayed as the Indian government is not willing to hold the delegation-level meeting."

After announcing last week that no fee would be charged from the pilgrims on the opening day of the kartarpur corridor and on Guru Nanak's 550th birth anniversary, on Friday Pak conveyed to India that pilgrims will also have to pay the $20 fee on Saturday. The corridor will connect the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Punjab with Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur, Pak.

Pakistan has decided to invite former PM Manmohan Singh for the inauguration of kartarpur corridor. Pakistan foreign minister said Singh represents the Sikh community. Indian Sikh pilgrims will be allowed to visit the holy Kartarpur Sahib from Nov 9. The corridor will connect Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur with Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district of Punjab.

Gurdaspur MP and Bollywood actor Sunny Deol Saturday reviewed the progress of work on the kartarpur corridor at Dera Baba Nanak here.

The US has welcomed building of the landmark kartarpur corridor between India and Pakistan to facilitate visa-free travel of Sikh pilgrims, saying the Trump administration is "incredibly supportive" of anything that increases people-to-people ties between the two neighbours.

“There is no question of me going (to Pakistan for kartarpur corridor opening) and I feel Dr Manmohan Singh will not go as well,” said Punjab CM Amarinder Singh, adding there was a huge difference between visiting Pakistan and going to the Gurdwara through the Corridor. He made it clear that he would be only leading the first all-party Jatha to the Gurdwara.

The Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and its parent body Evacuee Trust Property Board have credited the opening of kartarpur corridor to Imran-Sidhu friendship. During the arrival of first Indian jatha at Gurdwara Darbar Sahib via kartarpur corridor, sources said many people were holding placards welcoming Punjab MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu.

Just three weeks ahead of the scheduled inauguration of the kartarpur corridor, Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has dared India to halt it. "Rok sako to rok lo" (Stop it if you can), he said in a speech telecast on a Pakistan TV channel on Saturday. "The kartarpur corridor is going to open, whether India wishes so or not," he added.

Barely three weeks before kartarpur corridor connecting this part of Punjab and Kartarpur Sahib in Narowal, Pakistan is opened to pilgrims, the missing Pakistani side of the connecting bridge - that stands completed as an all-weather road on this side - arrests one's attention.