Pak PM performs groundbreaking ceremony for Kartarpur corridor

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday performed the groundbreaking ceremony of much-awaited Kartarpur corridor here.

Several dignitaries including Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, Minister for Religious Affairs Noorul Haq Qadri and Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed, Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Afridi, Indian ministers, and foreign diplomats attended the foundation laying ceremony, reported Dawn.

A delegation of Indian journalists and a number of Sikh pilgrims also attended the ceremony.

Minister for Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri crossed the Wagah Border to attend the groundbreaking ceremony of Kartarpur corridor in Pakistan as India's representatives for the event.

The Pakistan government will open the four-km-long visa-free corridor connecting Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur area of Narowal district to Dera Baba Nanak in India's Gurdaspur district on Guru Nanak Dev's 550th birth anniversary next year.

The Kartarpur route along the India-Pakistan border is three kilometers away from Gurdaspur, Punjab. Once opened, it would allow Sikh pilgrims a direct access to the historic Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan, where Guru Nanak Dev died in 1539.