October 23, 2024
ISLAMABAD – Pakistan and India have renewed their agreement to facilitate pilgrims via the Kartarpur Corridor for an additional five-year period, the Foreign Office (FO) said on Tuesday.
A statement issued by the FO said that the “Agreement between the Republic of India and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan for the facilitation of pilgrims to visit Gurudwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur, Narowal, Pakistan” had been signed for an additional period of five years.
Originally signed on October 24, 2019, for a five-year term, the agreement was set to complete its initial duration on Thursday.
“Its renewal underscores Pakistan’s enduring commitment to fostering interfaith harmony and peaceful coexistence,” the statement read.
“The agreement continues to offer visa-free access to pilgrims from India enabling them to visit the sacred site of Gurudwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur, where Baba Guru Nanak, the revered founder of Sikhism, spent his final days,” the statement read.
Since its inception, the corridor has facilitated the pilgrimage of thousands of worshippers to this holy site, the statement added.
“The Kartarpur Corridor fulfils the long-cherished aspirations of the Sikh community for access to one of their most revered religious landmarks.
“It reflects Pakistan’s recognition of the importance of safeguarding the rights of religious minorities,” the statement said.
The initiative has earned widespread appreciation from the international community, including United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres who described it as a “Corridor of Hope”, according to the statement.
Indian Minister for External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said in a statement on X that “Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government will continue to facilitate our Sikh community’s access to their holy sites.”
For up to 30 million Sikhs around the world, Kartarpur is one of their holiest places. When Pakistan was carved out of colonial India at independence from Britain in 1947, Kartarpur ended up on the western side of the border — though most of the region’s Sikhs remained on the other side.
For them, it is tantalisingly close — just four kilometres inside Pakistan, so near that Indian Sikhs have been known to stand on the other side and simply gaze across the divide at the site.
But decades of enmity between India and Pakistan has left extreme restrictions on their ability to visit.
Former prime minister Imran Khan formally inaugurated the Kartarpur Corridor at a colourful ceremony in November 2019, paving the way for Indian Sikh pilgrims to visit one of their religion’s holiest sites in Pakistan without needing a visa.