Amritsar : Sikh organization Dal Khalsa urged Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to announce during his visit to India Monday the creation of a four-km corridor to the Sikh shrine of Kartarpur Sahib located in Pakistan.

Dal Khalsa urged Sharif to allow a walkers’ corridor to the Sikh shrine, located four km inside the Pakistan territory from the India-Pakistan border near Dera Baba Nanak in Indian Punjab’s Gurdaspur district.

Sharif is arriving in New Delhi Monday for the oath-taking ceremony of Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi.

The gurdwara in Kartarpur (in Pakistan) is associated with the first Sikh guru and founder of the religion, Guru Nanak Dev.

In a personal welcome note to the visiting Pakistan Prime Minister, senior Dal Kahlsa leader Satnam Singh Paonta Sahib has raised issues pertaining to Sikh rights. He said that people of Amritsar and the Sikhs hoped that Sharif could find time now or next time to visit his home town Amritsar.

He said that the demand for the corridor was first raised in 1998 to enable Sikh pilgrims to have freedom to visit the gurdwara there without a visa or passport.

A group of Sikh devotees has been praying every month at the international border facing towards the Kartarpur Sahib shrine for the last several years, he said.

He also sought opening up of the Attari-Wagah land border and setting up of a Pakistan consulate in Amritsar.

Source: IANS