-Sikh community celebrates 1st anniversary of Kartarpur Corridor
By Our Diplomatic
Correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday said as it had reopened the Kartarpur Corridor on June 29, 2020 with COVID related necessary health safety protocols, India had yet to reopen the corridor from its side and allow Sikh pilgrims to visit Kartarpur Saheb.
“The corridor was temporarily closed on March 16, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the Foreign Office said in a statement issued here on the occasion of first anniversary of the historic opening of the Kartarpur Corridor.
The corridor, inaugurated on November 9, 2019 by Prime Minister Imran Khan on the eve of the 550th birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak, fulfilled the long-awaited desire of Sikh community from all over the world, it added. As the religious places started gradually opening up around the world, Pakistan also reopened the corridor on June 29, 2020 with COVID related necessary health safety protocols, the FO mentioned.
“India has yet to reopen the corridor from its side and allow the Sikh pilgrims to visit Kartarpur Saheb,” it added. Kartarpur has a special significance in the Sikh religion, as the first Guru of Sikhism, Baba Guru Nanak Saheb, had spent the last years of his life there. The Kartarpur Corridor, also known as the ‘Peace Corridor’, was a true symbol of interfaith harmony and religious unity, the FO said. Sikh as well as the international community, including United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who while visiting Kartarpur described it as the ‘Corridor of Hope’ immensely appreciated the landmark initiative of Pakistan, it added.
Moreover, The Sikh community in Pakistan celebrated on Monday the first anniversary of the opening of the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor, the foreign office said. The visa-free border crossing from India to Kartarpur, Pakistan, was inaugurated last November just ahead of the 550th birthday of Sikhism’s founder, Guru Nanak. It connects the Sikh shrines of Dera Baba Nanak Sahib, in India’s Punjab region, to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan.
The project is a rare recent example of cooperation between the nuclear arch-rivals, who came close to war in February following an attack on police in Indian-occupied Kashmir. India revoked the special status of the held region in August last year, inflaming relations once again. “Kartarpur Corridor, also known as the “Peace Corridor”, is a true symbol of inter-faith harmony and religious unity,” the Foreign Office said.
