Next meeting will be held on April 2
AMN / Atari / New Delhi
The first meeting of India and Pakistan held to discuss the modalities and the draft Agreement for facilitation of pilgrims to visit Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib using the Kartarpur Corridor ended in a cordial atmosphere at Atari today.
External Affairs Ministry, in a release, said, both sides held detailed and constructive discussions on various aspects and provisions of the proposed agreement and agreed to work towards expeditiously operationalizing the Kartapur Sahib Corridor.
The Ministry said, both sides also held expert-level discussions between the technical experts on the alignment and other details of the proposed corridor.
It was agreed to hold the next meeting at Wagah on 2nd of next month. This will be preceded by a meeting of the technical experts on 19th of this month at the proposed zero points to finalize the alignment.
The Indian delegation was led by Mr. S C L Das, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The Pakistan delegation was led by Dr. Mohammad Faisal, Director General for South Asia and SAARC of Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
It was also agreed to hold the next meeting at Wagah on April 2. This will be preceded by a meeting of the technical experts on March 19 at the proposed zero points to finalise the alignment.
It was the first meeting between officials of India and Pakistan to discuss the Kartarpur Corridor issue, amid heightened tensions between the two nations over the Pulwama terror attack, followed by India’s pre-emptive air strike on Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) camps in Balakot and Pakistan’s subsequent retaliation.
Last November, both India and Pakistan agreed to set up the Kartarpur corridor to link the historic Gurdwara Darbar Sahib—the final resting place of Sikh faith’s founder Guru Nanak Dev—to Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur.
Kartarpur Sahib is located in Pakistan’s Narowal district across the river Ravi, about four kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine.
The corridor will facilitate visa-free travel of Indian Sikh pilgrims to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur. Pakistan has committed to open the corridor in November this year on the occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak.
India’s Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had on November 26 last year laid the foundation stone of the Kartarpur corridor in Gurdaspur district.
Two days later, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan laid the foundation stone of the corridor in Narowal, 125 km from Lahore.