Meeting on Kartarpur Corridor opening to be held on Friday: Pakistan

Pakistan on Thursday said that a technical meeting on the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor will be held on August 30 at the Zero Point.

The corridor will connect Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Kartarpur with Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district and facilitate visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims, who will have to just obtain a permit to visit Kartarpur Sahib, which was established in 1522 by Sikh faith founder Guru Nanak Dev.

"A technical meeting on the Kartarpur corridor is set to take place at Zero Point tomorrow (Friday)," Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal said while addressing the weekly briefing.

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"India concurred to Pakistan's proposal and the technical meeting on Kartarpur Sahib corridor is being held on August 30 at Zero Point," he said.

Zero point is the point at which the Indian side of the corridor and the Pakistani side of the corridor will be converging. 

"Pakistan remains committed to completing and inaugurating the Kartarpur Sahib corridor as announced by our prime minister," he added.

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Pakistan and India are still discussing the modalities regarding opening of the corridor at Narowal, some 125-km from Lahore, for Indian Sikhs on the occasion of 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak on November 12. The corridor will also be the first visa-free corridor between the two neighbours since their independence in 1947.

Pakistan is building the corridor from the Indian border to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib while the other part from Dera Baba Nanak up to the border will be constructed by India. 

Tension between India and Pakistan has escalated after New Delhi revoked Article 370 of the Constitution which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated the state into two Union Territories on August 5. Reacting to India's move on Kashmir, Pakistan downgraded diplomatic ties with New Delhi.

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