India on Friday lodged a strong protest with the Government of Pakistan that despite being granted permission by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, the Consular officials of the High Commission of India in Islamabad were harassed and denied access on November 21 and November 22 at Gurudwara Nankana Sahib and Gurudwara Sacha Sauda to the Indian pilgrims visiting Pakistan.
The Ministry of External Affairs in its statement said the Indian officials were therefore compelled to return to Islamabad without performing their diplomatic and consular duties with regard to the Indian pilgrims.
This is the third consecutive visit of the Indian Sikh pilgrims when Pakistan has prevented the Indian High Commission officials from meeting the visiting Indian nationals on the pretext of security.
The MEA said this was done in order to deflect attention from Pakistan’s violation of the international legal instruments and conventions like the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961 and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 1963.
The MEA further stated that this was also in breach of the letter and spirit of the 1974 Bilateral Protocol on visit to religious shrines and the Code of Conduct for the treatment of diplomatic/consular personnel in India and Pakistan, 1992.
“Pakistan has been reminded that this is in contrast to the treatment met out to their High Commissioner and the Consular officials in New Delhi who have been provided full access to meet the Pakistani pilgrims who are currently in India on pilgrimage to Kalyar Sharif,” the MEA statement added.
India has also expressed grave concern at the reports of attempts being made during the ongoing visit of the Indian pilgrims to Pakistan, to incite communal disharmony and intolerance and promote secessionist tendencies with the objective of undermining India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
It had called upon Pakistan to take all measures to not allow its territory to be used for any hostile propaganda and support for secessionist tendencies against India in keeping with the commitments made under the Simla Agreement, 1972 and endorsed in the Lahore Declaration, 1999.
India has also reminded Pakistan that such actions are not in consonance with the stated intentions of Pakistan to facilitate the visits of Indian Sikh pilgrims, especially as we commemorate the 550th Birth Anniversary of Guru Nanak Devji.
Pakistan on Thursday welcomed India’s decision to build a corridor from Punjab to Pakistan’s Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib, the final resting place of Guru Nanak.
Read | Pakistan hails India’s decision to build Kartarpur corridor
Calling the Indian cabinet decision a victory for the peace lobby in both countries, Pakistan Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry said New Delhi’s move was an endorsement of Islamabad’s proposition on the issue.
In a landmark decision to commemorate the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev ji, the government on Thursday decided to build and develop a corridor from Dera Baba Nanak in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district to the international border to facilitate Sikh pilgrims visiting Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur on the banks of the river Ravi in Pakistan.
Read | Govt clears Kartarpur corridor to mark Guru Nanak’s birth anniversary
The decision was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
India had also approached the Pakistan government and urged it to recognise the sentiments of Sikh community by building a corridor with suitable facilities in its territory to facilitate easy and smooth visits of pilgrims from India to Kartarpur Sahib throughout the year.