Praising the initiative on Kartarpur corridor for Sikh pilgrims, Punjab Cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Tuesday said that such steps would promote peace and erase “enmity” between India and Pakistan.
Talking to media persons in Lahore, Sidhu said that the Kartarpur corridor has infinite possibilities.
The cricketer-turned-politician also added that the corridor will increase people to people contact between the two countries.
“This is a corridor of infinite possibilities, of peace, of prosperity, of opening up of trade relations,” Sidhu said.
“I feel that this corridor will be a bridge and erase enmity. It will increase people to people contact and bring peace. It is my belief that there are possibilities in it,” he added.
Sidhu, who arrived here along with a group of Indian journalists to take part in the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur Corridor in Narowal, some 120 kms from Lahore, was greeted at the Wagah Border by officials of Pakistan’s Punjab province.
The 4-km-long corridor will connect Dera Baba Nanak in India’s Gurdaspur district with Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib Narowal in Pakistan. The corridor will provide visa-free access to the Indian Sikh pilgrims to the gurdwara.
Prime Minister Imran Khan will perform the groundbreaking of the corridor on Wednesday.
Sidhu thanked Khan for making this corridor possible which he said will help promote peace between the two countries.
“This will erase enmity between the two nations,” he said.
“The seed Imran Khan had sown three months ago has become a plant. It is a happy moment for the Sikh community that the corridor to reach Kartarpur to get Baba Guru Nanak’s blessing without any hassle,” he told the media at Wagah.
He said the wait of 73 years is over after the opening of the corridor.
He termed it as a “corridor of infinite possibilities” and said through such initiatives, peace would be promoted (between the two countries).
Kartarpur is located in Shakargarh in Narowal district of Pakistan’s Punjab province. It is said that 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.
On Monday, Indian Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Indian Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh laid the foundation stone of the corridor in Gurdaspur.
(With PTI inputs)
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