Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday laid the foundation stone for the Kartarpur corridor amid India declining the invite for SAARC summit.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday laid the foundation stone for the Kartarpur corridor amid India declining the invite for SAARC summit.
Union ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri represented India during the ceremony. Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and Navjot Singh Sidhu were also present.
Praising Imran Khan, Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu also recites a poem, and said that violence must stop and peace should return to the region.
"Both the governments should realise that we have to move forward. My father used to tell me that Punjab Mail went till Lahore. I believe that it can go further till Peshawar, till Afghanistan," said Sidhu addressing the gathering.
Pakistan had earlier invited External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for the ceremony. However, Swaraj, who was unable to travel due to prior commitments.
On Monday, the foundation stone was laid at Dera Baba Nanak in Punjab's Gurdaspur district by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu.
The corridor will facilitate easy passage for Sikh pilgrims to the historic Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur in Pakistan.
The decision to build passage from Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district to the International Border was taken by the Union Cabinet on November 22. It has been a long-pending demand of the Sikh community.
Kartarpur is located in Shakargarh in Narowal district of Pakistan's Punjab. Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism, had spent more than 18 years of his life there.
The Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara is located on the banks of the Ravi river, about three-four kilometres from the border in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said the Kartarpur corridor initiative was not linked to the dialogue process with Pakistan.
"Unless and until Pakistan stops terrorist activities in India there will be no dialogue and we will not participate in SAARC," Swaraj told a press conference here.
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