New Delhi: India has put on hold the second round of Kartarpur Corridor talks for now over apprehensions that Pakistan may be fanning the Khalistan movement, sources told ThePrint.
According to the sources, the decision to defer the talks — scheduled for 2 April — came after Islamabad did not respond to New Delhi’s concerns on the subject.
Sources, however, added that while negotiations have been put on hold, India has told
Pakistan that a technical-level meeting can be held on April 15-16 at Zero Point.
The first round of talks on the Kartarpur Corridor, which will serve as a cross-border passage from Punjab to the Kartarpur gurdwara in Pakistan, was held on 14 March at Attari, Amritsar. The second round was scheduled to take place across the border from Attari, in Wagah, Lahore.
India’s main concern, the sources said, is the inclusion of a prominent Khalistani, Gopal Singh Chawla, in the 10-member committee constituted by the Imran Khan government for talks on the corridor.
“We have raised several concerns with Pakistan, one of them being the 10-member committee that Pakistan has created on Kartarpur, in which they have included Khalistani leaders who are known to have seccessionist tendencies against India,” said a top government official.
“We have made it clear to them that the corridor cannot be used for propaganda on anti-India sentiments,” the official added.
The Khalistan movement refers to a campaign led by extremist Sikhs to carve a separate nation for members of the community. It was responsible for a years-long insurgency in India that was suppressed in the 1990s.
According to the official, Chawla also has links with the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) and is seen as an aide of its founder, Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of 26/11 terror attacks.
The official also flagged three other members of the committee for alleged links to the Khalistan movement: Bishen Singh, Tara Singh and Maninder Singh.
India said it is ready for the talks to go through, but wants Pakistan to address these concerns before the government can send a delegation for the next round of talks.
“While we want the corridor to open, we cannot compromise on the security of our pilgrims,” the official said.
The 10-member committee was created on 27 March, with both sides setting a November 2019 deadline for opening the corridor.
Also read: India seeks clarifications from Pakistan on Kartarpur Corridor
Other Concerns
The corridor will be linking the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district with the Darbar Sahib Kartarpur in Narowal, Pakistan, which is the final resting place of the founder of the Sikh religion, Guru Nanak.
This year also marks Guru Nanak’s 550th birth anniversary.
The ground-breaking ceremony of the Kartarpur shrine took place on 28 November 28 last year.
According to a second government official who spoke to ThePrint on the matter, there are “wide gaps” between the two sides on several areas of negotiations.
While India wants 5,000-6,000 pilgrims allowed to travel through the corridor daily, Pakistan has said it will not allow more than 500 a day.
India is opposed to Pakistan’s proposal of having an extra permit, besides the visa, for travel through the corridor. Pakistan, meanwhile, doesn’t support India’s demand for visa-free travel, the second official said.
New Delhi is also keen that pilgrims be given the option to walk till the shrine, instead of taking the shuttle service, but Pakistan is not open to that.
Also read: India seeks visa-free access for 5,000 pilgrims per day to Kartarpur Sikh shrine
- The copy has been updated with India’s stance on technical level meeting at Zero Point.