M A I N   N E W S

Drive for Pak corridor to Sikh shrine
Varinder Walia
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, April 8
Even as the Government of Pakistan will open Gurdwara Kartarpur (Narowal), for the first time since Partition to Sikh devotees, a mass movement would be launched for the construction of a corridor to this gurdwara from Dera Baba Nanak, Gurdaspur. Following this, devotees could go without a passport.

While the Government of Pakistan has already offered to make the corridor, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee has passed a resolution wherein a request has been made to the Government of India for the same so that Sikh devotees could visit the shrine without passport.

Mr Jaswinder Singh, SGPC member and coordinator of the Akal Purkh Ki Fauj, a religious organisation, has written to the Minority Commission, Ministry of External Affairs and Home Ministry, Government of India, to accept this demand of the Sikhs.

In an interview with TNS at Gurdwara Nankana Sahib in November last year, Lieut-Gen Javed Nasir (retd), Chairman Aukaf Board, Pakistan, had said that the Government of Pakistan was ready to bear the expenses of the corridor which would facilitate the free access to Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib. The gurdwara is only 5 km from the Indo-Pak border in Narowal, Sialkot district. At this historical place, Guru Nanak departed from this world on September 23, 1529 A.D. The shrine is located by the Ravi river. The newly formed Pakistan Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee has given a facelift to the gurdwara.

Interestingly, the devotees can see Gurdwara Kartarpur from the upper storey of Dera Baba Nanak (India). The SGPC has prepared an ambitious plan to gild Dera Baba Nanak. For this it has reportedly approached the UK-based Guru Nanak Nishkam Sevak Jatha.