Imtiaz Ahmad

letters@hindustantimes.com

Islamabad : Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan Saturday used the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor to make a fresh pitch for peace with India, saying the two countries should make efforts to settle the Kashmir issue to usher in stability and progress in the region.

In a speech markedly different in tenor from his address at the UN General Assembly that had referred to the possibility of nuclear war over Kashmir, Khan offered the example of France and Germany living in peace after numerous wars, and said he hoped a similar peace could be achieved by India and Pakistan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who largely avoided mention of Pakistan in his speech while inaugurating the Indian section of the corridor in Gurdaspur, thanked Khan for “understanding, respecting and acting on India’s sentiments regarding the Corridor”.

PM Modi also thanked workers in Pakistan who completed the other section of the corridor.

Addressing a large gathering at Durbar Sahib gurdwara in Kartarpur that included former premier Manmohan Singh, Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh, Navjot Singh Sidhu and MP Sunny Deol, Khan said the situation in Kashmir had gone beyond a “territorial issue”.

“This is an issue of humanity, not of land…The rights promised by the UN have been taken away, and there will never be peace this way and because of this, all our relations have stopped,” he said, speaking in Urdu.

“If Prime Minister Modi is listening to me, I would like to say that justice leads to peace, injustice leads to lack of peace. Give justice to the people of Kashmir.”

Khan Cited the example of France and Germany, which were trading and allowing their citizens to move across their borders now. “In the same way, when Kashmir is settled and Kashmiris get their rights, there will be peace in the subcontinent and the region will progress. I pray that day is not far away,” he said.

The two sides inaugurated separate sections of the corridor that links Dera Baba Nanak in India’s Gurdaspur to Durbar Sahib gurdwara, built at the spot in Pakistan’s Kartarpur where Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, spent the final years of his life.

The Indian side has acknowledged the Kartarpur Corridor’s potential to foster peace between the two sides but remains apprehensive about Pakistani elements leveraging the project to fan separatist sentiments in Indian Punjab.

Khan said he was happy to spend the day with Sikh pilgrims from around the world, comparing their joy to that experienced by Muslims making a pilgrimage to the holy city of Medina in Saudi Arabia.