In an announcement made this Saturday morning, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Islamabad was prepared to reopen the corridor on the occasion of the death anniversary of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh.
The place where Guru Nanak practised and perfected what he preached, closed its doors this March for pilgrims due to the pandemic. The corridor witnessed a flow of 3,871 pilgrims between March 7 and March 13 from Dera Baba Nanak border in Gurdaspur according to a report by The Indian Express.
In April, parts of the shrine were damaged and several domes built a-top the outer perimeter walls of the complex had collapsed due to a heavy storm. At least eight domes of the newly-renovated Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib dislodged during the thunderstorm, reported news agency PTI.
This had caused great consternation to the sentiments of the Sikh community residing in India. The Indian government has urged for immediate rectification of the deficiencies that led to the damage in the structure, a source told The Indian Express. However, the Pakistan government has claimed that it has repaired “the damage caused by winds and rains at Kartarpur Sahib within hours.”
Last November, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the corridor connecting Dera Baba Nanak in India’s Punjab with the Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara located in Pakistan.
