‘ At NY meet, Qureshi had plans to announce Kartarpur access’

Pakistani diplomatic sources said on Sunday that foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had planned to make the much- awaited offer of a corridor across the border so that Indian Sikh pilgrims could travel to and pray at Kartarpur Sahib Gurudwara to external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj at the now- cancelled meeting in New York.

Kartarpur Sahib, in Pakistan’s Punjab, is located where Guru Nanak spent the last years of his life in the first half of the 16th century AD. The place holds special significance for Sikhs.

Pakistan had planned to make a much- awaited offer to India — at the now- cancelled meeting in New York between the two foreign ministers — for a corridor across the border in Punjab so that Indian Sikh pilgrims could pray at the Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara close to the international border in Pakistan Punjab, Pakistani diplomatic sources have confirmed.

According to sources, the offer was to have been made by Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi to external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, had the two ministers met in a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York later this month.

After Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan proposed a meeting between the two ministers, India had initially agreed and had announced last week that such a meeting would take place. But within 24 hours after that, New Delhi — upset over the killing of three Kashmiri policemen by terrorists in J& K and also the killing of a BSF soldier by Pakistani troops — reversed its stand and called off the planned meeting.

The move led to sharp diplomatic exchanges and a war of words between the two neighbours.

The Kartarpur Sahib Gurudwara is located at a place where the founder of Sikhism and the first Guru of the Sikhs Guru Nanak spent the last years of his life in the first half of the 16th century AD.

New Delhi had last week said the matter of Kartarpur Sahib would be raised by Ms Swaraj with her Pakistani counterpart.