In a further blow to India-Pakistan relations, Pakistan has said it will not go ahead with its decision to open the Kartarpur corridor for Sikh pilgrims unless India agrees to hold talks with Pakistan.
Addressing media, Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesperson Muhammad Faisal said: "Nothing can happen if there are no talks between the two countries."
He, however, reiterated that dialogue was the only way forward to resolve all outstanding issues between the two neighbours.
Over the past two decades, Sikh organisations have called for visa-free access to the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara in Pakistan’s Narowal district, where the founder of the Sikh faith, Guru Nanak Dev, spent his last few years with his followers.
In 2010, the then Punjab Assembly had passed a resolution in support of a ‘religious corridor’ from India to Pakistan to allow access to the shrine located just three kilometers away from the India-Pakistan border, but the plan never saw the light of the day.
The issue resurfaced during Punjab state minister Navjot Singh Sidhu’s brief visit to Islamabad in August this year when he had gone to attend the swearing-in ceremony of his “friend” Imran Khan, the newly-elected prime minister of Pakistan.
A picture of Navjot Singh Sidhu hugging Pakistan Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa in Islamabad Source: twitter/Mehr Tarar
It was then that the Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa hinted at their intention at the opening of the route to historic gurdwara on the occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, which will be observed in November 2019.
Taking it further, Pakistan Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry in September said that “a system was being developed for Sikhs” to facilitate their visit to the gurudwara.
“Pakistan will soon open the border at Kartarpur for Sikh pilgrims and the pilgrims will be able to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur without visas,” Mr Chaudhry had told BBC Urdu.
Since then, tensions between the two countries have aggravated after India called-off foreign ministerial talks between the two countries in New York last month, citing the “brutal killings” of three policemen and a border guard in Jammu and Kashmir, as well as Pakistan releasing postage stamps "glorifying" Kashmiri militant leader Burhan Wani.
