Islamabad on Tuesday said a Pakistani delegation will visit New Delhi on March 14 to discuss a draft agreement about the Kartarpur corridor. Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also said an Indian delegation will visit Islamabad on March 28 to discuss the deal.
The ministry also said that its envoy to India, Sohail Mahmood, will return to New Delhi after “completion of consultations” in Islamabad. Pakistan had recalled its high commissioner to India on February 18, four days after the Pulwama attack, in which a suicide bomber killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force jawans.
In November 2018, New Delhi and Islamabad laid the foundation stone for the Kartarpur corridor project, which will connect Dera Baba Nanak in India’s Punjab with the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur area of Pakistan’s Narowal district. Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, died in Kartarpur in 1539. The corridor will allow Indian Sikh devotees to travel without visas to the pilgrimage site.
In January this year, India shared the coordinates of the crossing point of the corridor along the International Border with Pakistan. India had also invited a delegation from Islamabad, and suggested possible dates for talks – February 26 and March 7. However, Pakistan described India’s response to its proposal to finalise an agreement as childish and claimed that its response would be mature.
In February, Pakistan proposed to send a delegation to India on March 13 to finalise the draft agreement – a move that India welcomed.
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