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India will send Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri Union ministers to Pakistan next week to attend the inauguration ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor, said Saturday the Minister of External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj, while he was answering an invitation from Islamabad.
Earlier in the day, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi announced in a tweet that he had invited President Swaraj, Pakistani Minister of Punjab Amarinder Singh, and the Minister of State. Navjot Singh Sidhu to attend the ceremony in Kartarpur on November 28.
In a letter to Qureshi, Swaraj thanked him for the invitation but said that it would not be possible for him to travel to Kartarpur Sahib because of previous engagements, and the India would send Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Puri for the event.
The visit of the two ministers of the Union to Pakistan should ease tensions between the two countries.
"Conscious of the feelings of our Sikh citizens and the importance of facilitating their easy and unhindered access to Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib, we will send Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Minister of Transformation and Food Industry, and Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs, as representatives of the Indian Government at the event scheduled for November 28, "she said in her letter.
On Thursday, the two countries announced that they would develop the Kartarpur corridor in their respective regions, linking Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district in Punjab to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan. Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, the burial place of Guru Nanak Dev, founder of Sikhism, is located on the other side of the Ravi River in Pakistan, about four kilometers from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district. in Punjab, India.
The corridor, once built, will give Indian pilgrims easy access to the sanctuary.
In his letter to Qureshi, Swaraj also hoped that the Pakistani government would speed up the construction of the corridor to allow "our citizens to pay tribute to Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib through this corridor as soon as possible". Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan will inaugurate the opening ceremony of the corridor on the Pakistani side on November 28th. Prime Minister Narendra Modi hoped Friday that the Kartarpur corridor would serve as a bridge between the Indian and Pakistani peoples. He even mentioned the fall of the Berlin Wall to emphasize the importance of the corridor.
The Cabinet of the Union on Thursday approved the proposal to create a corridor linking Dera Baba Nanak in the Gurdaspur district of Punjab at the international border to allow Indian pilgrims to travel to Gurdara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan.
As a result of the Cabinet decision, India urged Pakistan to build the corridor leading to Kartarpur Sahib on the Pakistani side.
Later, Qureshi said that Islamabad had announced to India its decision to build the Kartarpur corridor. The issue of Kartarpur Sahib came to the fore when Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu visited Pakistan in August to attend the swearing-in ceremony of his cricketer friend turned politician Imran Khan. , as Prime Minister of this country.
After his return, Sidhu said that the Pakistani army chief, Qamar Javed Bajwa, had told him that the country could open a corridor towards Kartarpur Sahib.
Indo-Pakistan relations have plunged in recent years without bilateral talks. Relations between the two countries were strained after terrorist attacks by Pakistan-based groups in 2016.
First published: Nov. 25, 2018 09:22 IST
