Even though the Kar­tarpur cor­ri­dor stays closed since March 16 for COVID19 rea­sons, Sikhs from In­dia rue the fact that while life oth­er­wise is work­ing nor­mally, the In­dian side of the Kar­tarpur cor­ri­dor still re­mains shut to Sikh pil­grims on its first an­niver­sary. Seek­ing open­ing of the Kar­tarpur cor­ri­dor, Dal Khalsa will com­mem­o­rate the first an­niver­sary of this unique de­vel­op­ment at the In­dian side of the Kar­tarpur Cor­ri­dor bor­der near Dera Baba Nanak Gur­d­wara Sahib.

CALLING THE KAR­TARPUR COR­RI­DOR A LAND­MARK ACHIEVE­MENT OF THE SIKHS and to fo­cus on the fact that this path­way to peace re­mains closed, Dal Khalsa has planned a meet at the Dera Baba Nanak Kar­tarpur bor­der on the oc­ca­sion of the first an­niver­sary of the in­au­gu­ra­tion of the 4.7 kilo­me­tres long pas­sage by Prime Min­is­ters of In­dia and Pak­istan last year on 9 No­vem­ber.

Clar­i­fy­ing about the cur­rent con­tro­versy re­lat­ing to the man­age­ment of Gur­d­wara Kar­tarpur Sahib, Dal Khalsa spokesper­son Kan­war Pal Singh, in his state­ment to the me­dia said, “The In­dian Min­istry of For­eign Af­fairs is dis­tort­ing facts. With an ul­te­rior mo­tive, some peo­ple here lose no op­por­tu­nity to cre­ate an­i­mos­ity be­tween Sikhs and Pak­istani Mus­lims.”

“The In­dian Min­istry of For­eign Af­fairs is dis­tort­ing facts. With an ul­te­rior mo­tive, some peo­ple here lose no op­por­tu­nity to cre­ate an­i­mos­ity be­tween Sikhs and Pak­istani Mus­lims.”

Kan­war Pal Singh, Spokesper­son, Dal Khalsa

“I talked with Pak­istan Sikh Gur­d­wara Com­mit­tee pres­i­dent Sat­want Singh and he has clearly ap­prised me that main­te­nance of the Sikh Re­hat Maryada and re­li­gious af­fairs con­tin­ues and will al­ways re­main the pre­rog­a­tive of the PS­GPC at Gur­d­wara Kar­tarpur Sahib and all other Gur­d­waras in Pak­istan. Only the ad­min­is­tra­tive and de­vel­op­ment work was and would be looked af­ter by Evac­uee Trust Prop­erty Board (ETBP).

Re­it­er­at­ing his call, Kan­war Pal Singh said, “In the wake of the COVID19 pan­demic out­break, the jour­ney across the Kar­tarpur Cor­ri­dor was tem­porar­ily sus­pended on 16 March and even though the Pak­istan side opened it in June, In­dia con­tin­ues its de­lay­ing tac­tics and has yet to re­voke the sus­pen­sion, even when the Jathedar of Akal Takht Sahib Harpreet Singh has also urged the gov­ern­ment to do so.

Gur­d­wara Kar­tarpur Sahib Photo Cour­tesy: Babar Ja­landhri