Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Sunday came down heavily on Pakistan Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid’s comments that Kartarpur corridor was the brainchild of their Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa. He said that such claims exposed Islamabad’s nefarious intent behind the initiative.
As Singh had on various earlier occasions raised questions on Pakistan’s intent on Kartarpur corridor, this admission by the Pakistan minister, CM said validates his stand on the issue. “ Rashid had completely bared the wicked design of Pakistan behind the corridor, which India had hoped would emerge as a bridge of peace between the countries,” he said.
CM Singh also took strong exception to Rashid’s remarks that “the corridor would hurt India, which would forever remember the wound inflicted on it by General Bajwa with the Kartarpur Corridor.”
Amarinder Singh also warned Pakistan not to indulge in any misadventure against India and termed Rashid’s remarks an open and blatant threat against India’s security and integrity.
“Don’t make the mistake of reading weakness in our gratitude for the opening of the corridor,” warned the Chief Minister, asserting that India would give a befitting response to any bid by Pakistan to attack its borders or its people.
Declaring that India would never let Pakistan fulfill its despicable ambitions against the former, he said any such attempt by Islamabad would be met with retaliation of the kind that they would never be able to survive.
Amarinder Singh recalled that he had all along maintained that while he was extremely happy, as a Sikh, at the opening of the corridor to enable access to Indian devotees to the historic Kartarpur Gurdwara, the threat it posed to the country could not be ignored.
The Chief Minister had, in fact, been repeatedly urging caution over the matter, warning that Pakistan was trying to win the sympathies of the Sikhs by opening the corridor to further the ISI-backed Referendum 2020 agenda.
This had been quite evident from various facts, most notably that Bajwa had disclosed the Pakistani decision to build the corridor to then Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu at the time of Imran Khan’s swearing-in ceremony, said the Chief Minister.
“Imran had not even taken over then, yet their Army chief had spoken about this to Sidhu. How was it possible unless Bajwa was the one behind the corridor decision,” asked Amarinder Singh, recalling that he had pointed this out long back.
Given the revelation of the Pak minister, Amarinder Singh also urged Sidhu to be more cautious in his dealings with the Imran Khan government and not allow his personal friendship with the Pakistan Prime Minister cloud his judgement in any way, as that could be harmful to India’s interests.
The Kartarpur corridor corridor connects the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India’s Punjab with Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur, just about four km from the international border, located at Narowal district of Pakistan’s Punjab province.
On November 22, last year, just a day before the 549th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the Union Cabinet decided to build and develop a corridor from Dera Baba Nanak in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district to the international border for Sikh pilgrims to visit Pakistan.
The corridor was inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi on November 9.