Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Monday that his government would invite former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the inauguration of the Kartarpur corridor.
In a video posted on Twitter Qureshi is heard saying that the former prime minister represented the Sikh community.
“We are making big preparations for it,” he said. “We have decided to invite former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He is held in high esteem and represents the Sikh community. On behalf of the Pakistan government, I extend our invite to him. We shall invite him in writing too,” Qureshi said.
“We want all the Sikh pilgrims to visit Kartarpur and participate in the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev,” he said.
The Kartarpur gurdwara, located on the bank of river Ravi in Pakistan, is about 4 km from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India’s Gurdaspur district, and about 120 km northeast of Lahore. Guru Nanak had lived there for 18 years until his demise in 1539.
The corridor will allow pilgrims to travel from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur in Pakistan. It will be thrown open on November 9 to mark the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev.
‘No information’
Singh’s office said it neither received such an invitation nor did it have any information about it.
The Congress meanwhile remained tight-lipped about the purported invitation. Congress sources added that Singh, even if invited, was unlikely to go.
“When he did not go to Pakistan when he was Prime Minister for ten years of the Congress led UPA rule, why will he go now?” a senior Congress functionary said.
