Amarinder slams Pak over minister’s remark
CHANDIGARH: Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Sunday said Pakistan railway minister Sheikh Rashid’s disclosure that the Kartarpur Corridor was the brainchild of their Army chief general Qamar Javed Bajwa had exposed Islamabad’s nefarious intent behind the initiative.
Even as he expressed serious concern over this admission by the Pakistani minister, the chief minister said that in validating his (Singh’s stand) on the issue, Rashid had completely bared the wicked design of Pakistan behind the corridor, which India had hoped would emerge as a bridge of peace between the countries.
The chief minister also took strong exception to Rashid’s remarks that “the Corridor would hurt India, which would forever remember the wound inflicted on it by Gen Bajwa with the Kartarpur Corridor.”
Terming it an open and blatant threat against India’s security and integrity, Singh warned Pakistan not to attempt any misadventure.
“Don’t make the mistake of reading weakness in our gratitude for the opening of the Corridor,” warned the chief minister, asserting that India would give a befitting response to any bid by Pakistan to attack its borders or its people. Declaring that India would never let Pakistan fulfill its despicable ambitions against it, he said any such attempt by Islamabad would be met with retaliation of the kind that they would never be able to survive.
Singh recalled that he had all along maintained that while he was extremely happy, as a Sikh, at the opening of the Corridor to enable access to Indian devotees to the historic Kartarpur Gurdwara, the threat it posed to our country could not be ignored. The chief minister had, in fact, been repeatedly urging caution over the matter, warning that Pakistan was trying to win the sympathies of the Sikhs by opening the corridor to further the Isi-backed Referendum 2020 agenda.
Singh also urged Navjot Singh Sidhu to be more cautious in his dealings with the Imran Khan government and not allow his personal friendship with the Pakistan Prime Minister cloud his judgment in any way.