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Pakistan Opens Visa-Free Border Crossing for Indian Sikh Pilgrims

Ayaz Gul

   ISLAMABAD - Hundreds of pilgrims Saturday from India's minority Sikh
   community crossed the international border with Pakistan without a visa
   for the first time in 72 years to pay homage to one of their holiest
   shrines.

   The rare instance of cooperation to facilitate the religious journey
   comes amid a sharp deterioration in already tense ties between the
   nuclear-armed rival countries sparked by recent Indian actions in the
   disputed Kashmir region. Both India and Pakistan control portions of
   the Himalayan territory but claim it in its entirety.

   Indian pilgrims, including senior politicians and officials, traveled
   through a newly established 4.1-kilometer cross-border corridor,
   featuring fenced-off sides and leading straight to the shrine in the
   Pakistani town of Kartarpur in Punjab province.

   Known as the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, the temple is believed to have been
   built on the site where the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, spent last
   18 years of his life before he died there in the 16th century.

   Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan inaugurated the border corridor,
   just in time for the 550th anniversary of Guru Nanak's birth on
   November 12.

   "I congratulate you and I am happy to be with you today to see that for
   the first time people can now come from India [through the corridor] to
   pay the homage," Khan told thousands of Sikh devotees inside the newly
   built sprawling complex around the temple.

   The "historic" opening of the Kartarpur corridor, he said, is a
   testimony to Pakistan's commitment to regional peace. "We believe the
   road to prosperity of the region and a bright future for our coming
   generation lies in peace," the Pakistani leader asserted.

   Khan went on to urge Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to work for a
   negotiated settlement to the Kashmir dispute so the two countries can
   jointly fight poverty and bring regional prosperity to their two
   nations.

   "I asked Modi, 'Why can't we resolve this issue?' What is happening in
   Kashmir is beyond territorial issue, it's about human rights ... They
   are being treated like animals. If PM Modi is listening to me, then I
   would say that peace prevails through justice. Give justice to the
   people of Kashmir," he said.

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