New Delhi (NVI): India condemned Pakistan’s decision of transferring the management and maintenance of the Kartarpur Sahib Gurudwara to the administrative control of the Evacuee Trust Property Board, a non-Sikh body.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) today called upon Pakistan “to reverse its arbitrary decision depriving the Sikh minority community its right to manage the affairs of the Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib.”
“This unilateral decision by Pakistan is highly condemnable and runs against the spirit of the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor as also the religious sentiments of the Sikh community at large,” MEA said in a statement.
The Pakistan government has transferred the management and maintenance of the Holy Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib away from the Pakistan Sikh Gurudwara Prabhandhak Committee (PSGPC), a body run by the minority Sikh Community, to the administrative control of the Evacuee Trust Property Board.
The Sikh community has responded sharply and has expressed grave concern at this decision of Pakistan, MEA said.
The MEA statement further added, “Such actions only expose the reality of the Pakistani government and its leadership’s tall claims of preserving and protecting the rights and welfare of the religious minority communities.”
Kartarpur Sahib Gurudwara is located in Pakistan’s Narowal district across the river Ravi, about four kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine.
India and Pakistan in 2019 signed an agreement to operationalise the Kartarpur corridor to allow Indian pilgrims a visa-free visit to the holy gurudwara.
-CHK
