Domes at holy Kartarpur Gurudwara in Pakistan crumble; India's Sikh community offers help

Domes of the newly renovated Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara have collapsed due to a thunderstorm and high-speed winds in the area of the holy site's location in Punjab on Saturday evening.

The domes were allegedly not even constructed with cement and iron but with plaster-of-paris material, as per accounts. After the embarrassing incident, the Sikh community has expressed disappointment with the way construction was done in Pakistan. The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee has offered help to Imran Khan to reconstruct the damaged Kartarpur Gurudwara citing the Pakistan Government's "substandard construction".

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Sikh Community upset

Reports state that the Pakistan government in order to meet the deadline and save on expenditure got the prefabricated domes and assembled them on the Kartarpur Gurudwara structure. Pakistan has also levied an entry fee of USD 20 per person from the Indian side for the maintenance of the Gurdwara. However, the corridor is now closed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reportedly, the Sikh community has raised questions on Pakistan Army's motives in constructing the Katarpur Corridor, alleging that the Corridor was just a political stunt for Imran Khan and the Pakistan army stands exposed which was instrumental in the Kartarpur Corridor project.

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Minister of Science & Technology Fawad Chaudhry said the matter has been addressed before the Religious Affairs Minister Noor Ul Haq Qadri with a request for an immediate inquiry.

Kartarpur Corridor was opened in November last year connecting the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Punjab with Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur in Narowal district of Pakistan's Punjab province allowing Indian Sikhs to visit the religious shrine. Kartarpur is said to be the place where founder of Sikhism Guru Nanak breathed his last, hence the place holds religious and historical significance for the Sikh community.