Why Indian Sikhs want visa-free corridor to Pakistan

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Pakistan on Wednesday has broken ground for a visa-free corridor to provide access to thousands of pilgrims from India to a Sikh shrine about three to four kilometers from the border with Pakistan, an initiative that many say will strengthen cordial relations between the two countries and promote inter-faith harmony.

Sikhs have been waiting for decades for the construction of the corridor to visit their holy place – the Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara, 120 kilometers from Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore, in Narowal district of Punjab province.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan performed the groundbreaking of the corridor. On the Indian side, the foundation stone of the passage was laid on Tuesday.

Long wait ending soon

The proposal to open the corridor has been lying dormant in the face of tense relations between the two countries since 1988.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh (R) listens to Indian Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu (L) during the foundation stone-laying ceremony for the planned Dera Baba Nanak-Kartarpur Sahib road corridor to the Pakistani border, at Dera Baba Nanak, some 48 kilometers from Amritsar on November 26, 2018. /VCG Photo

Pakistani Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa renewed the idea in August in a "controversial embrace" with former Indian cricketer-turned-politician and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu during PM Khan's oath-taking ceremony.

The hug stirred controversy against Sidhu in India as nationalist parties and opposition said he embraced the enemy.

But Sidhu has snubbed the criticism saying it was a peace gesture that opened way for the corridor.

"After 71 years, a dream will soon be a reality. In opening the Kartarpur border, both governments have opened a new chapter in which many things previously impossible will be possible," Sidhu said after he arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday.

Kartarpur is a "corridor of infinite possibilities," he elaborated, adding it would promote peace and erase "enmity" between the two countries.

Sidhu arrived with 17 Indian journalists to witness the groundbreaking ceremony.

Indian Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and India's Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh declined the invitation from Pakistan to participate in the event.

Indian Minister for Housing Hardeep S. Puri and Indian Minister for Food Harsimrat Kaur Badal, however, were present at the groundbreaking ceremony.

Sandeep Singh Sandhu, an official of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) in Amritsar, India, an organization that manages Sikh Gurdwaras, regretted Swaraj and Singh's decision to not attend the ceremony.

The event has religious importance and the Indian officials should have accepted the invitation irrespective of the political differences on both sides, he told CGTN Digital on Wednesday.

Welcoming the initiative, Allama Muhammad Ahsan Siddiqui, a Muslim cleric and founder of the Interfaith Commission for Peace and Harmony from Karachi, told CGTN Digital that the corridor is a bridge to peace.

Pakistan is doing a great job by paving the way for the opening of the corridor, he said, adding that it marks significant importance for Pakistan and the Sikhs from across the world.

The move will play an important role for peace between the two countries, Siddiqui added, saying it is a step toward dialogue and reconciliation.

Community leaders and their representatives on both sides of the border have welcomed the progress.

An Indian Sikh devotee looking through a pair of binoculars towards the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan, from the Indian side at Dera Baba Nanak, on the outskirts of Amritsar, on November 25, 2018. /AFP Photo

"Sikhs in India are very happy; all their prayers have been answered. What else could they have asked for?" said Sandhu.

On the opening of the corridor, it will be much easier for pilgrims to visit the shrine, he said.

For a Sikh, there is no happiness bigger than having an opportunity to visit a place of religious importance, said Sardar Manmohan Singh from Pakistan.

Speaking to CGTN Digital on the phone while on the way from Lahore to Narowal district where the foundation stone was laid, he said the opening of the corridor has equal importance for the Pakistani Sikhs.

Sikhs, no matter where they live, pray for easy access to their holy places for all, he explained.

The corridor will connect Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan's Narowal district with Dera Baba Nanak in India's Gurdaspur district.

Sikhs believe Baba Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism, had spent more than 18 years of his life in Kartarpur.

The Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara is one of the many holy places of Sikhs left behind in Pakistan when thousands of them migrated to India at the time of partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 that resulted in the creation of India and West and East Pakistan.

East Pakistan later became Bangladesh.

The Gurdwara is visible from the Indian side, where hundreds of pilgrims gather daily on viewing platforms to have a glimpse of the shrine. They may soon be able to pay a visit to the shrine after the corridor is opened.

(Cover: Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu, center, arrives at the Pakistan border post Wagah near Lahore on Tuesday. /AP Photo)