Chandigarh, Oct 27 Punjab Education Minister Harjot Bains on Tuesday moved a resolution in the state assembly urging the Centre to reopen the Kartarpur Sahib corridor, and asserted that the passage is a matter of religious freedom and kinship for the Sikh ‘Sangat’.
The Union government must take immediate steps to reopen the corridor and keep it operational, simplify visit procedures and engage with the Pakistan government to ensure safe, hassle-free and uninterrupted movement of ‘Sangat’ to Gurdwara Sri Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan, read the resolution moved on the concluding day of the session.
The Kartarpur corridor, which facilitates devotees to pay obeisance at the historic gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan, has been shut since May 7 last year, when the Indian armed forces carried out pre-dawn missile strikes on nine terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir under Operation Sindoor.
“Sri Kartarpur Sahib is… not just a passage, it is a bridge that reconnects the Sikh Sangat with the soil where our Guru Sahib walked,” Bains said.
Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism, spent an important phase of his life at Sri Kartarpur Sahib and gave humanity the message of equality, service, brotherhood and ‘Sarbat da Bhala’ (welfare of all), the minister said.
The corridor represents the aspirations of lakhs of devotees and the pain of families separated by the 1947 Partition, he added.
Bains further said that Guru Nanak Dev’s message transcends religion, community and country. His teachings show humanity the path of love, harmony, tolerance and peace.
Keeping the Kartarpur Sahib corridor open is thus a matter of religious freedom, human kinship and respect for Punjab’s shared heritage, he said.
He also called for sustained and sincere efforts to keep the corridor open as a living symbol of faith, peace, people-to-people connectivity and shared heritage that transcends borders.
The restrictions and interruptions in movement through the corridor hurt the religious sentiments of the Sikh community worldwide and deprive devotees of ‘darshan’, he said.
Bains said the resolution urges the Centre to simplify procedures for devotees, especially the elderly and infirm, to enable maximum devotees to visit the holy shrine.
(PTI News)
