India-Pakistan sit for talks to set up corridor linking shrine

Notwithstanding tensions in bilateral ties, senior officials of India and Pakistan today began talks to finalise the modalities for setting up of a corridor linking a holy Sikh shrine in the Pakistani town of Kartarpur with Gurdaspur district in Indian state Punjab. 



The talks are being held at Attari on the Indian side of the Attari-Wagah border, our New Delhi correspondent reports quoting officials.



It is the first meeting between officials of India and Pakistan to discuss the Kartarpur corridor issue, amid heightened tensions between the two neighbours over the Pulwama terror attack which left 40 Indian paramilitary men dead, followed by India's pre-emptive air strike on Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists training camps in Balakot in Pakistan and Pakistan's subsequent retaliation.



In today's meeting, India is likely to raise the issue of hassle-free access to Indian pilgrims to Gurudwara Darbara Sahib, where Sikh religion founder Guru Nanak spent the last 18 years of his life, and ask Pakistan  to ensure Sikh pilgrims visiting the shrine are not used for separatist propaganda.



From the Indian side, officials comprised representatives from the Home and External Affairs Ministries, BSF, National Highways Authority of India and Punjab state government.



India and Pakistan had agreed in November last year to set up the corridor to link Gurdwara Darbar Sahib -- the final resting place of Sikh faith's founder Guru Nanak Dev -- to Dera Baba Nanak, a border village in Gurdaspur.



Kartarpur Sahib is located in Pakistan's Narowal district across the river Ravi, about four kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine.



The corridor will facilitate visa-free travel of Indian Sikh pilgrims to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur. Pakistan has committed to open the corridor in November this year on the occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak.



India's Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had on November 26 last year laid the foundation stone of the Kartarpur corridor in Gurdaspur district. Two days later, Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan laid the foundation stone of the corridor in Narowal, 125 km from Lahore.