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 Amritsar on Saturday.
Mukherjee said that 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.
{{/usCountry}}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.
{{/usCountry}}He said that after the feasibility study, strategic clearance from the Pakistan government would be worked out in this regard.