Kartarpur Corridor: Only 500 Pilgrims To Be Allowed Per Day, Says Pakistan

ot more than 500 Sikh pilgrims will be allowed per day through the Kartarpur Corridor and a database of the pilgrims with their travel history will be maintained, Pakistan has said in a draft agreement that it plans to send to the Indian Government for signing.

In the agreement, Pakistan government has also said that a three -day prior information of the visiting pilgrims and security clearance by the Indian side will be needed before the entry of Sikh pilgrims through the planned Kartarpur Corridor.

According to the draft, India will also have to share the details of the pilgrims. 

It is also proposed that the pilgrims must constitute a group of 15 people and the corridor will be open from 8 am to 5 pm. Both sides will be creating a database of pilgrims having names, travel history.

The agreement which is widely circulated in the Pakistani media also says that Islamabad will reserve the rights to refuse entry into its territory, reduce the period of stay or terminate the stay of any pilgrim despite the grant of permit if it considers him/her a threat to the country or finds undesirable for security or other purposes.

The draft also underlines that entry in Pakistan territory will be permit based and a passport is compulsory and the pilgrims will not be exempted from the obligation to respect laws and regulations of Pakistan after entering in its territory. "All laws must be respected not just concerning entry and exit," the proposal stated.

The pilgrims will be subjected to several terms and condition including creation of a database which contains information about their names, travel history and other relevant information.

The draft added that while the purpose of the agreement is to facilitate a visa-free travel, still India will have to give three-day prior information of the visiting pilgrims and they will need to Indian passports and individual security clearance issued by Government of India.

The agreement also proposes establishment of infrastructure on the both sides, including facilitation centres and counters for running security check and issuance of permits for the facilitation of the pilgrims. 

On November 28, Pakistan Prime Minister laid the foundation stone of the Kartarpur Corridor along the India-Pakistan border. Once opened, it would allow Sikh pilgrims a direct access to the historic Gurudwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan, where Guru Nanak Dev died in 1539.

Kartarpur Corridor Project

Here is all you need to know about the Kartarpur corridor project:

1. Kartarpur corridor would facilitate Sikh pilgrims in visiting the 16th-century Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan.
2. The 4-km-long corridor will connect Dera Baba Nanak in India’s Gurdaspur district with Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib Narowal in Pakistan. The corridor will provide visa-free access to the Indian Sikh pilgrims to the gurdwara.
3. The opening of a corridor was a long-pending demand of the Sikh community.
4. Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had first suggested the corridor during a trip to Lahore in 1999.
5. The gurdwara, on the banks of Ravi river, has historical significance for Sikhs as Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism, spent 18 years there. Established by the first Sikh Guru in 1522, the shrine is about three-four km from the international border.
6. The decision to build the corridor — from Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district to the international border — was taken by the Union Cabinet on November 22.
7. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday laid the foundation stone of Kartarpur corridor.
8. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan will inaugurate the groundbreaking ceremony of the corridor on the Pakistani side on November 28. 
9. Vice President Naidu called it "beginning of a new chapter" in bilateral ties and said it will act as a "unifier" to build bridges across old chasms.
10. Terming Kartarpur as a "corridor of infinite possibilities", Sidhu said that such initiatives would promote peace and erase "enmity" between India and Pakistan.

(PTI agencies)