Pakistan opens Kartarpur Corridor

PM Imran inaugurates the much-anticipated Corridor ahead of 550th birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak; Ex-Indian PM Manmohan Singh, Indian Punjab CM Amrinder Singh and ex-cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu, among prominent pilgrims, attend the ceremony; Khan says days of subcontinent’s prosperity not far once Kashmir dispute resolved; laments Modi regime has turned Kashmir from a territorial to human rights issue

KARTARPUR: Prime Minister Imran Khan, expressing his optimism for regional peace and development while inaugurating Kartarpur Corridor for Sikh pilgrims, said on Saturday time was not far when the subcontinent would achieve prosperity once the Kashmir issue was resolved and the Kashmiris got their due rights.

Khan, however, lamented Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist regime had turned the Kashmir issue from mere a territorial to a human rights one as around 900,000 Indian troops had put eight million people under siege in the occupied valley.

“France and Germany had fought so many wars and killed millions of people. Look the Germany and France of today, they now trade with each other with their borders open and have prosperity. No one even can think of war (there). InshaAllah when this Kashmir issue is resolved and Kashmiris get their right, the subcontinent will also see that kind of prosperity,” the Prime Minister said while addressing the inauguration ceremony of Kartarpur Corridor here.

The Corridor would give a visa-free access to Indian Sikhs to visit Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib, the second holiest shrine of their faith, located some 4.1 kilometres from the Indian border in Pakistan.

The Prime Minister was accompanied by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Interior Minister Brig (retd) Ijaz Shah, Religious Affairs Minister Pir Nurul Haq Qadri, special assistants Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan and Zulfiqar Bukhari, Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar and Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, and others.

The Prime Minister, who visited the huge Kartarpur complex to review the arrangements, also welcomed former Indian prime minister Sardar Manmohan Singh and his cricketer friend Navjot Singh Sidhu as they went through the immigration process at the terminal.

Bollywood actor Sunny Deol and Chief Minister of Indian Punjab Amrinder Singh were also among the prominent pilgrims in the ceremony that was also attended by hundreds of Sikh pilgrims from India and Pakistan, diplomats and media men from both sides of the border.

The Prime Minister, who earlier cut the ribbon to inaugurate the much-anticipated Corridor ahead of the 550th birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak, appreciated the Frontier Works Organisation and other government departments for completing the project in record 10 months.

To a suggestion by Sidhu to open the border, Prime Minister Khan said soon after assuming his office, he had offered Modi to enhance bilateral engagement to address the regional challenges of poverty, climate change and polio, besides peacefully resolving the Kashmir dispute through dialogue.

He also recalled his interaction with Manmohan Singh in a summit in India in which the latter had also viewed that the region could prosper if the Kashmir issue was resolved.

But unfortunately, the Prime Minister said, the Modi regime had turned the Kashmir issue from mere a territorial to a human rights one as around 900,000 Indian troops had put eight million people under siege in the held valley.

He told the gathering that the Kashmiri people were being treated like animals and their rights were being usurped, which were guaranteed by the United Nations. “Peace cannot be established this way. By this (issue) all of our relations are at halt,” he remarked.

He said peace could only be made by bringing justice as injustice could lead to anarchy, and urged the Modi government to liberate the Kashmiri people to let them live their own free life. He said if the border was opened for trade, one could guess how much prosperity the region could achieve and the people get rid of poverty.