Reopen Kartarpur Corridor, demands Gargaj

Akal Takht officiating Jathedar Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargaj on Saturday demanded the reopening of the Kartarpur Corridor, used by Sikh pilgrims to visit the final resting place of Guru Nanak in Pakistan.

The corridor has remained shut since May 7, when the Indian armed forces launched Operation Sindoor targeting terror camps in the neighbouring country in response to the Pahalgam terrorist attack that claimed 26 lives on April 22.

It was opened on the 550th birth anniversary of the Guru in 2019.

The corridor links the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan, the final resting place of Guru Nanak, with the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur. Demanding swift action by the Centre ahead of the Guru’s death anniversary in September, Gargaj said it would allow devotees to pay obeisance at the Kartarpur Sahib shrine in Pakistan.

He said the initiative had given the Punjabis living on both sides of the border to reunite but due to the recent tensions between India and Pakistan, it was closed. Gargaj said Punjabis were still enduring the anguish of the 1947 Partition. He prayed before the almighty that such division and bloodshed should never again occur anywhere in the world.

Meanwhile, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) held an akhand path, followed by a collective prayer to pay homage to those killed during the Partition.