Pak showed inflexibility in talks on Kartarpur Corridor: MEA

Pakistan showed inflexibility in talks on the Kartarpur corridor and gave unfavourable responses on issues of charging a service fee, the number of pilgrims to be allowed on special occasions and allowing protocol officials to accompany them, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.

India and Pakistan on Wednesday agreed on visa-free travel by Indian pilgrims to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib using the Kartarpur corridor but stopped short of finalising an agreement on the cross-border route.

Pakistan will allow 5,000 Indian pilgrims to visit the gurdwara every day using the planned corridor and the numbers could be more on special occasions. But the two sides could not finalise the draft agreement on the corridor.

Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, "We had hoped that all pending issues will be resolved. However we realised that Pakistan was quite inflexible during the talks."