Pakistani Sikhs ask India to open Kartarpur border, hail their government decision

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The Kartarpur Sahib shrine in Pakistan. File photo

Pakistan Sikh Council (PSC) has urged the Indian Government to respond positively to the goodwill gesture of Pakistan Government to open Kartarpur Sahib Corridor on 550th Birth celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev.

The PSC welcomed the move on part of the Pakistan Government led by Prime Minister Imran Khan as it was a good news for the global Sikh community who will get an opportunity to visit the shrine.

Karachi-based patron and chief of the PSC, Ramesh Singh Khalsa said that all eyes were on the Indian side to fulfil the long pending demand of the Sikhs to allow visit to Kartarpur Sahib where the first Sikh Guru Nanak Dev spent the last years of his life.

According to the reports in Pakistani newspapers Daily Dawn and the Express Tribune, Khalsa said that they were looking towards the Indian government to respect the wishes of the Sikh community and announce the opening of the border on their side so that Sikh devotees from Pakistan may also be able to freely travel to India to visit the places of worship there.

“The step will go a long way in bettering relations between both Pakistan and India,” he said.

On behalf of the Pakistani Sikh community, Khalsa thanked Chief of Army Staff Qamar Javed Bajwa, who had first shared the news with the former Indian cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu during his visit to Pakistan at the swearing in of Prime Minister Imran Khan.