Thousands of Sikh devotees gather at the Dera Baba Nanak Shrine in the Gurdaspur district of Indian Punjab every year. From here they can view but not access the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur which is situated across the border in the Pakistani Punjab. To be able to visit the shrine, every year pilgrims have to travel to the Wagah Border in Lahore, which is about 120 kilometers away from Kartarpur – going through extensive visa checks and traveling a long journey even though the shrine in Kartarpur is just over 4 kilometers away from the Indian border.
Kartarpur Sahib is a gurdwara in Kartarpur, Narowal District, Pakistan. It is said that the first Guru of Sikhism i.e. the founder of the Sikh religion, Guru Nanak built the first-ever Sikh commune/community on the banks of the Ravi river at Kartarpur after his missionary travels, it also where he died. The present gurdwara is said to be built on the site where Guru Nanak Ji died.
Sikhs from the Indian side of the border gather every year in large numbers to view the site considered sacred to them but at great difficulties of traveling long distances, extensive visa requirements and issues of permissions to be able to visit the site. Even after 1974 when the Then-India governments agreed to set up a protocol to facilitate Sikh pilgrims every year to visit holy sites across the border, Kartarpur Sahib was never really included in the protocols.
Originally proposed/discussed in 1998 between then Prime Ministers of Pakistan and India, Nawaz Sharif and Atal Vajpayee; The project stipulated that the border crossing at Kartarpur should be opened so that pilgrims from Dera Baba Nanak, Gurdaspur, India can directly travel to Kartarpur Sahib –a site which one can see from across the border.
The current proposal at hand is that there would be the creation of a ‘Kartarpur Corridor,’ which would allow pilgrims from the Indian side of the border to travel to Kartarpur from Dera Baba Nanak without a visa or such documentation for a day visit. A bridge would be constructed over the Ravi river, allowing for pilgrims to make the short 4-kilometer journey with great ease. Visitors would be restricted between this particular region and would only be able to stay for a few hours, not longer than a day. Although a visa would not be required regular security checkpoints are expected when pilgrims cross the border into Pakistan.
Since 1998, discussion of real substance has never really happened between the governments of Pakistan and India on the issue of the Kartarpur corridor. A breakthrough was made in August 2018 when the Minister of Local Government, Tourism & Cultural Affairs of the Indian Punjab, Navjot Singh Sidhu visited the oath-taking ceremony of then newly elected Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan. While at the ceremony, Sidhu shared a hug with the Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan, Qamar J. Bajwa where he was promised that work on the Kartarpur border crossing would be opened for the 550th Birth Anniversary of Guru Nanak in November 2019. Also, read about the unsolved riddle of mohenjo Daro.
Since then, it has been a journey few expected. Pakistan and India fought a limited war after India accused her of the Pulwama terror attack and then claimed to have launched an airstrike in Balakot, Pakistan. This led to the capture of an Indian Air Force Pilot which Pakistan eventually released as a gesture for peace, the airspace between India and Pakistan was also closed for a prolonged period of time.
Just when it seemed that the situation might settle down, India’s scrapping of article 370 in occupied Jammu and Kashmir and the subsequent blackout and military crackdown in the region heightened tensions immensely. It led to the suspension of trade between the two countries and the recalling of ambassadors.
But despite all this, the Pakistani Government announced that it will stick to it’s earlier commitment of opening the Kartarpur Corridor for Guru Nanak’s 550th Birth Anniversary in November 2019 and that all preparatory work is on schedule.
The corridor has been termed by many as a corridor of ‘peace’ and that such an exchange may lead to the normalization of relations between Pakistan and India. The decision to continue with the opening of the corridor shows a great level of diplomacy on part of the Pakistani government. While the corridor would benefit thousands of people over the years and will also contribute to the economic prosperity of the Narowal region in Punjab, Pakistan, it is unlikely that it would contribute to lasting peace between the two countries, not when Kashmir remains the heart of the conflict.
In the past, Pakistan and India have achieved diplomatic breakthroughs e.g. the Indus Water Treaty and the Simla Agreement but a lot of these compromises have been seen as independent or isolated ones which do not alter or address the conflict war.
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