Citing the fact that Pakistan Army General Qamar Javed Bajwa had broken the news of opening the Kartarpur Corridor to Navjot Singh Sidhu even before Imran Khan was sworn in as their Prime Minister, Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Amarinder Singh has dubbed the whole affair as a bigger conspiracy hatched by the Pak Army.

The opening of the Kartarpur Corridor is clearly a game plan of the ISI, said the CM in an interview to a TV channel, adding that a bigger conspiracy seems to have been hatched by Pakistan Army against India.

He said that Pakistan was attempting to revive militancy in Punjab and thus everyone should be wary of all of its overtures, no matter how grand they appear to be.

Amarinder Singh said the demand for opening of the Kartarpur Sahib corridor was pending since partition as several holy Sikh shrines (Sri Nankana Sahib, Sri Panja Sahib, Dera Sahib, and Kartarpur Sahib) had been left in Pakistan.

Even former PMs Indira Gandhi and Dr Manmohan Singh had taken up the issue of opening the Kartarpur Corridor with Pakistan. He said he himself had raised this issue with his Pakistan Punjab counterpart Parvez Elahi and with the then President, Parvez Musharraf during his previous tenure as the chief minister.

The CM said Imran Khan was undoubtedly making efforts to bring peace, tranquility, and harmony with India, but at the same time, he should also prevail upon the top brass of Pakistani Army to ensure that killings of our soldiers at borders are stopped immediately.

Pakistan’s history is the witness that if any PM wants to stay in power, he has to toe the line of the Army, said the CM, citing the example of Nawaz Sharif’s agreement with the Pakistani Army in Dubai, which led to his continuation as PM.

On the issue of Navjot Sidhu’s visit to Pakistan for the ground-breaking ceremony, Amarinder said Sidhu went there due to his friendship with Imran Khan, adding that this was not unreasonable.

He said that he himself has many friends there, including the former Pakistan Punjab CM Parvez Elahi.

Describing Sidhu as a “likeable person,” the CM said he and Sidhu were not at loggerheads as reported by the media and he had absolutely no problems with Sidhu while running the government. Amarinder said that Sidhu always spoke in a forthright manner and his only problem was that “sometimes he shoots before he thinks.”

Responding to another question regarding Sidhu’s remarks that Rahul Gandhi was his Captain, the CM said that this was hardly an issue to be raised as Sidhu had always treated him (Captain) as a fatherly figure.