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| People chant 'Pakistan Zindabad' at Sidhu's rally in Rajasthan |
Following the event, Indian media lashed out at the minister.
This comes at the Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu’s rally
in Rajasthan few days after Prime Minister Imran Khan performed the
ground-breaking of the four kilometers long Kartarpur Corridor.
The event was attended by Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar
Javed Bajwa, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Minister of State for
Interior Shehryar Afridi, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, Minister for
Religious Affairs Noorul Haq Qadri and Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed, as
well as Indian ministers, foreign diplomats, Sikh yatris and a delegation of
Indian journalists.
People chant 'Pakistan Zindabad' at Sidhu's rally in Rajasthan
The Indian delegation included Minister for Food Harsimrat
Kaur Badal, Minister for Housing Hardeep S. Puri, Indian Punjab Minister for
Local Government and Tourism and former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu.
As the event commenced, a film about the pilgrimage of
members of the Sikh community to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib was aired for the
audience.
In his address
at the ceremony, Sidhu and Indian Minister for Food Harsimrat Kaur Badal
thanked PM Khan for opening the corridor and expressed good wishes.
Sidhu said that
India’s Constitution says there will be no discrimination on the basis of caste
or creed. Baba Guru Nanak said this 549 years ago. Religion should never be
seen through politics and terrorism, he added.
Sidhustressed
that peace should prevail now as there had been enough bloodshed.
“Both the
governments should realise that we have to move forward. My father used to tell
me that Punjab Mail went till Lahore, I believe that it can go further till
Peshawar, till Afghanistan,” says Sidhu.
On the occasion,
visibly emotional Indian Minister for Food Harsimrat Kaur Badal went on to say
that she had never thought of visiting Pakistan but is now here on this
historic day. "I saw the corridor becoming a reality in Indian Punjab
there and now I am seeing it here," she said.
People chant 'Pakistan Zindabad' at Sidhu's rally in Rajasthan
“When the wall
of Berlin can be brought down, then hatred between India and Pakistan can be
brought down too with opening of Kartarpur Corridor. It can be a new beginning
in the name of Baba Nanak who said ‘na koi Hindu na koi Musalman lekin ek
Onkar,” she declared.
The corridor
will connect Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur area of Narowal district with
Dera Baba Nanak in India’s Gurdaspur District.
Pakistan will
build the corridor from the Indian border to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in
Kartarpur while the other part from Dera Baba Nanak in Indian Punjab’s
Gurdaspur district upto the border will be constructed by India.
It will
facilitate the Sikh pilgrims visiting their most sacred sites in Pakistan. The
initiative for opening the corridor was taken by Pakistan which was later
endorsed by the Indian side.
The initiative
has widely been lauded both in Pakistan and India as a step towards building
bridges between the two countries.
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