Punjab CM urges India, Pak to ensure progress on Kartarpur Corridor

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday urged India and Pakistan to ensure that progress on Kartarpur Corridor is not hampered in wake of the neighbouring country decision to severe trade ties after the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir's special status.

He also termed Pakistan's decision to downgrade diplomatic relation with India as a "knee-jerk reaction".

"Kashmir is our internal matter and Pakistan's decision to downgrade diplomatic ties is a knee-jerk reaction. Both countries must take adequate steps to ensure the progress of Kartarpur Corridor is not jeopardized in light of @pid_gov decision to downgrade diplomatic relations with India," he tweeted.

Prime Minister Imran Khan's government on Wednesday announced to expel Indian ambassador to Pakistan and not sending ambassador-designate to India a day after the Parliament approved to strip Jammu and Kashmir of special rights and bifurcate into two Union Territories -- Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

On Wednesday, Singh said that Pakistan's decision was not in the interest of regional security, warning that any such move to destabilise the "fragile peace of the South-East Asian region" would make the neighbouring country itself vulnerable.

India and Pakistan have working on the three-km corridor to allow Sikh pilgrims to get direct access to the historic Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur where Guru Nanak Dev passed away in 1539.

The route is expected to be completed by September-end. Officers from both the countries had on July 14 held the second round of bilateral talks to narrow down their differences on the corridor.