Amarinder calls it conspiracy of Pakistan army
Claiming that Pakistan army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa had broken the news of opening of the Kartarpur corridor to Navjot Singh Sidhu even before Imran Khan was sworn in as the prime minister, Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Sunday dubbed the whole affair as a “bigger conspiracy” hatched by the Pak army.
“The opening of the Kartarpur corridor is clearly a game plan of the ISI”, the chief minister said, adding that a bigger conspiracy seems to have been hatched by Pakistan army against India. “Pakistan is attempting to revive militancy in Punjab and everyone should be wary of its overtures, no matter how grand they appear to be,” he said, according to an official release.
The CM said the demand for opening of the Kartarpur corridor was pending since Partition before Pakistan, where several holy Sikh shrines (Nankana Sahib, Panja Sahib, Dera Sahib and Kartarpur Sahib) are located.
Even former prime ministers Indira Gandhi and Dr Manmohan Singh had taken up the issue with Pakistan, he added.
Amarinder said that during his previous tenure as the CM, he also had raised this issue with Parvez Elahi, the chief minister of Punjab province of Pakistan, and with the then President Parvez Musharraf.
“Imran Khan is undoubtedly making efforts to bring peace, tranquillity and harmony with India, but at the same time he should also prevail upon the top brass of Pakistani army to ensure that killings of our soldiers at borders are stopped immediately. Pakistan’s history reveals that if any prime minister wants to stay in power, he has to toe the line of the army,” he said, citing the example of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s agreement with the Pakistan army in Dubai, which led to his continuation as PM.