India, Pakistan set to sign pilgrim corridor pact

The pact will introduce visa-free access from India to the Pakistani town of Kartarpur.

India and Pakistan are set to sign an agreement on Indian pilgrims visiting a Sikh shrine in Pakistan, rare co-operation between the nuclear-armed neighbours at a time of tension that has brought exchanges of fire on their disputed border.

The pact will introduce visa-free access from India to the Pakistani town of Kartarpur, home to a temple that marks the site where the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, died.

India’s foreign ministry said in a statement late on Monday an understanding had been reached on most issues and India was prepared to sign the agreement yesterday. However, sources said the agreement is likely to be postponed by a day and the ceremony may now take place today, sources said.

It is learnt that the agreement could take place at the zero line. Pakistani officials were not immediately available for comment but Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper cited a foreign ministry spokesman as saying agreement had been reached and the two sides would sign the pact soon.

The Sikh minority in India has long sought easier access to the temple in Kartarpur, which is just over the border in Pakistan. The collaboration comes at a time of tension between the rivals, with Pakistan particularly aggrieved over recent Indian government measures in its part of the divided Muslim-majority region of Kashmir.

Both countries claim the Himalayan region in full but rule it in part. India in August revoked special autonomy in Indian-controlled Kashmir, which was accompanied by a crackdown on dissent by India’s security forces there, angering Pakistan.

The dispute over Kashmir has bedevilled relations since their independence in 1947 and sparked two of their three wars.

India said on Sunday two soldiers and a civilian were killed in crossborder shelling in Kashmir while Pakistan said one of its soldiers and three civilians had been killed. In February, they came close to war following a suicide bombing in Indian Kashmir that killed 40 paramilitary soldiers.

In response, India launched an air strike on the Pakistani side and Pakistan shot down an Indian aircraft.

The new crossing will be inaugurated on November 9, just before the 550th birthday of Sikhism’s founder on November 12, officials from both sides have said.