Context: Following the recent terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, India and the Pakistan-India border skirmishes, the Indian authorities have indefinitely shut the Kartarpur Corridor.
Relevance of the Topic: Prelims: Location of Kartarpur Corridor.
About Kartarpur Corridor
- Kartarpur Corridor is a religious corridor connecting two gurdwaras (Sikh temples):
- Gurudwara Dera Baba Nanak, Gurdaspur district, Punjab, India.
- Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan (Darbar Sahib gurdwara is the final resting place of Guru Nanak Dev)
- The crossing allows devotees from India to visit the gurdwara in Kartarpur, Pakistan, 4.7 kilometres from the India–Pakistan border on the Pakistani side.
- The corridor was first proposed in early 1999 by Atal Bihari Vajpayee then Prime Ministers of India, as part of the Delhi–Lahore Bus diplomacy.
- In 2018, the foundation stone was laid, and the corridor was completed for the 550th anniversary of the birth of Guru Nanak in 2019.
- The corridor enables visa-free cross-border pilgrimage for up to 5000 Indian devotees of all faiths daily.