New Delhi:

Days after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s visit to Pakistan for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation or SCO meeting, India and Pakistan on Tuesday agreed to renew the agreement on the Kartarpur corridor for another five years. However, the issue of Islamabad charging a fee of $20 per pilgrim, per visit still persists.

Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur, often called just Kartarpur Sahib, is one of the holiest shrines for Sikhs. That is because Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak Dev preached there during the last eighteen years of his life.

After Partition of India in 1947, Kartarpur Sahib fell on the Pakistan side of the International Border. With India being the home for more than 95 per cent of all Sikhs globally, pilgrims from all over India always demanded access to go to Kartarpur Sahib, which is in Shakargarh Tehsil, Narowal District, in Pakistan’s Punjab Province.

On October 24, 2019, India and Pakistan signed an agreement to facilitate the visit of pilgrims from India to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur through the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor. This was initially signed for a period of five years. This has now been renewed for another 5-year term.

“It has been agreed between India and Pakistan through diplomatic channels to extend the validity of the Agreement on Sri Kartarpur Sahib Corridor for a further period of five years,” the Ministry of External Affairs said.

“Extension of the validity of this agreement will ensure uninterrupted operation of the Corridor for use by the pilgrims from India to visit the holy Gurdwara in Pakistan,” it added.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also posted about it on social media platform X, writing “India and Pakistan have renewed the agreement on Sri Kartarpur Sahib Corridor for the next five years. PM @narendramodi’s government will continue to facilitate our Sikh community’s access to their holy sites.”

During his recent 24-hour visit to Pakistan for the SCO Summit, Mr Jaishankar held no bilateral meeting with his Pakistani counterpart, nor was there any official meeting. He however, greeted the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, when the latter welcomed him to a state dinner organised of all SCO delegates. Mr Jaishankar also reportedly had a brief exchange of greetings with his counterpart Ishaq Dar at the official dinner. However, no official talks were held and no note takers were present either.

FEE WAIVER REQUEST

Pakistan has been levying a fee of $20 per pilgrim, per visit for them to visit the holy shrine. Devotees from India have been urging the Government of India to try and get this fee waived by Islamabad. However, there has been no breakthrough in this regard.

“In view of the continued requests of the pilgrims regarding the removal of USD 20 service charge levied by Pakistan per pilgrim per visit, India has once again urged Pakistan to not levy any fee or charges on the pilgrims,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in its statement.

Lahore:

The restored statue of the first ruler of the Sikh Empire, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, which was earlier damaged by religious extremists, was unveiled at Kartarpur Sahib on Wednesday in the presence of over 450 visiting Indian Sikhs.

Members of the Sikh community from Pakistan and India posed for a picture in front of the statue of the emperor.

Punjab’s first Sikh minister (for minorities) and president of the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC) Ramesh Singh Arora unveiled the statue. Kartarpur Sahib is also known as Gurdwara Darbar Sahib and is situated about 150 km northeast of Lahore, close to the Indian border.

“We have installed Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s statue at Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, Kartarpur Sahib, today in the presence of local and Indian Sikhs,” Mr Arora told PTI.

The 44-year-old Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader said that the restored statue is placed at Kartarpur Sahib primarily so that Indian Sikhs visiting here across the border using the corridor could also see it.

“At Kartarpur, better security will also be ensured for the statue of the Sikh leader that was vandalised earlier at Lahore Fort,” he said.

The 455 Sikhs who arrived here from India last week to take part in events in connection with Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s death anniversary attended the inauguration of the statue. They will stay for a day in Kartarpur.

The nine-foot-tall bronze statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh was first installed at the Lahore Fort near his ‘samadhi’ in 2019. It was vandalised twice by members of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP).

The statue of the great Sikh ruler of Punjab was a gift to the people of the province from a body in the United Kingdom.

It is learnt that the statue, which depicts the Maharaja on horseback took eight months to complete and was sponsored by a United Kingdom-based historian and Sikh Khalsa (SK) Foundation head, Bobby Singh Bansal. The weight of the statue is said to be between 250 and 330 kg.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh was the founder of the Sikh Empire, which ruled the northwest Indian subcontinent in the early half of the 19th century.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Lahore:

Pakistan’s Punjab government said on Tuesday that it will install the restored statue of the first ruler of the Sikh Empire, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, at Kartarpur Sahib on Wednesday so that visiting Sikhs from India would get to view it too.

Kartarpur Sahib is also known as Gurdwara Darbar Sahib and is situated about 150 km northeast of Lahore, close to the Indian border.

The nine-foot-tall bronze statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh was first installed at the Lahore Fort near his Samadhi in 2019. It was twice vandalised by activists of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), a far-right Islamic political party in Pakistan.

“We are going to install Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s statue at Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, Kartarpur on Wednesday afternoon in the presence of local and Indian Sikhs,” Punjab’s first Sikh Minister and President (pardhan) of the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC) Sardar Ramesh Singh Arora told PTI.

The restored statue is being placed at Kartarpur Sahib so that Indian Sikhs visiting there could see it, Arora said. He also assured better security to protect the restored statue.

The minister said restoration work of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s statue has already begun which will soon be completed.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh was the founder of the Sikh Empire, which ruled the northwest Indian subcontinent in the early half of the 19th century with his headquarters at Lahore.

Currently, 455 Sikhs, who arrived here from India last week to take part in festivities in connection with Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s death anniversary, will also be present at Kartarpur Sahib on Wednesday when Singh’s statue will be unveiled. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)