Amritsar, June 29
(IANS) A two-km barbed wire corridor is one of the options
being considered by the governments of India and Pakistan to
enable Sikhs to visit the famous Sikh gurudwara at Kartarpur
inside Pakistani territory. The Kartarpur shrine is visible
from the Indian border at Dera Baba Nanak and is over two-km
inside Pakistani territory. The shrine has historical and
religious significance for Sikhs as it is linked to the first
Sikh guru, Nanak Dev.
An indication to
this effect was given by Union External Affairs Minister
Pranab Mukherjee during his visit to the border area in the
Dera Baba Nanak sector near here Saturday.
Mukherjee said
senior officials and experts will visit the area shortly to
conduct a feasibility study on how the corridor could be built
to enable pilgrims to visit the shrine without hindrance.
There have been
demands from Sikh leaders and the Punjab government to the
central government to take up the matter with the Pakistan
government.
Mukherjee told
reporters that he had already mentioned the issue to his
Pakistani counterpart, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi,
for the construction of the corridor as an express link from
the Indian side till the shrine.
He said after the
feasibility study, strategic clearance from the Pakistan
government would be worked out in this regard.
thaindian
