Gurpurb: MHA allows 1,500 Sikh pilgrims to visit Pakistan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 11

The Centre on Thursday sidestepped a question on the reopening the Kartarpur Corridor and instead pointed out that it was permitting 1,500 pilgrims to travel to pay obeisance at religious shrines in Pakistan through the Attari-Wagah Integrated Checkpost.

“In view of the significance of Gurpurb, it has been decided that a jatha of 1,500 will travel to religious shrines in Pakistan from November 17 to 26,” said MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi.

On the other hand, the MEA said in June, Pakistan had twice denied permission to jathas to visit Sikh shrines. Once the jatha for Guru Arjan Dev’s martyrdom anniversary was denied permission and then the jatha for Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s birth anniversary was not allowed to enter Pakistan.

As per the Pakistan-India bilateral agreement, 3,000 Indian Sikh pilgrims can be allowed entry into Pakistan for Gurpurb celebrations. This time, the pilgrims will be allowed to go to Nankana Sahib as also gurdwaras in Lahore, Hassan Abdal, Kartarpur and Farooqabad.

Bagchi pointed out that India-Pakistan land travel was being conducted on a very limited scale due to Covid restrictions on both sides.

Though there have been intermittent demands to reopen the corridor, which is shut since March last year, former Union Cabinet Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal earlier this week wrote to PM Narendra Modi on the second anniversary of its inauguration. She sought his personal intervention for its reopening.

Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu had visited the ‘darshan asthan’ along Zero Line in Gurdaspur district for a glimpse of Gurdwara Darbar Sahib on the second anniversary of its opening and urged the Centre to reopen it. Pakistan, too, has asked India to reopen the corridor from its side.