In the third round of meeting between delegates of India and Pakistan to discuss and finalise the draft agreement for the Kartarpur corridor the countries agreed on visa-free travel of Sikh pilgrims to the Kartarpur Sahib Gurudwara without any restrictions, based on their faith, a Home Ministry official said.
5,000 pilgrims can visit the holy site of the Sikhs every day, officials said after the India-Pakistan meeting in Punjab’s Attari. However, no agreement has been reached on Pakistan’s insistence on charging a service fee for allowing pilgrims to visit the Gurdwara and presence of Indian consular or protocol officials at the premises.
“The agreement was reached at the third round of talks at Attari on modalities for operationalisation of the Kartarpur Sahib corridor,” the official said. The corridor will connect Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur with Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district of Punjab and facilitate visa-free movement of Indian pilgrims.
This is the second such meeting on the Kartarpur corridor after New Delhi revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special status leading to fresh tensions between the two neighbours. In the last joint secretary-level meeting held in July at Wagah in Pakistan, it was agreed that 5,000 pilgrims per day will be allowed to visit Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara in Pakistan.
On August 30, the meeting between technical experts of India and Pakistan had taken place. The corridor will be the first visa-free corridor between the two neighbours since Independence.