The Indian Punjab Chief Minister and other Indian lawmakers have arrived in Pakistan to pay a visit to Kartarpur.

Important Indian leaders, including the Indian Punjab chief minister, are in Pakistan today (Thursday) to visit the Kartarpur Corridor, according to a Foreign Office spokeswoman, a day before Gurpurab, the birth anniversary of Sikhism’s founder, Baba Guru Nanak.

The Kartarpur Corridor, which connects Pakistan’s Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, the ultimate resting place of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev, to the Gurdaspur district’s Dera Baba Nanak shrine, reopened on Wednesday.

Due of the COVID-19 epidemic, pilgrimage to the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara was halted in March 2020.

According to Indian media sources, Indian Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi and his ministers are part of the first team to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur. They have arrived at Shakargarh’s Kartarpur border terminal.

Sardar Ameer Singh, head of the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (PSGPC), met and welcomed them upon their arrival.

An FO official previously said that Indian Punjab Deputy Chief Ministers Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Om Prakash Soni, as well as Punjab Congress President Navjot Singh Sidhu, will visit Pakistan.

Surinder Dalla, Sidhu’s media adviser, then stated that the Punjab Congress president will pay homage at Kartarpur Corridor on November 20, not today.

Previously, Channi had applauded the Indian government’s decision to reopen the Kartarpur Corridor and stated that the state cabinet will be part of the first “jatha” (group) to visit the historic shrine in Pakistan on November 18, according to the Hindustan Times.

As the Kartarpur Corridor reopens, thousands of Sikh pilgrims begin to arrive.
Thousands of Sikh pilgrims from India and throughout the globe crossed the border into Pakistan on Wednesday to commemorate the 552nd birth anniversary of the religion’s founder, Baba Guru Nanak.

The Kartarpur Corridor, a visa-free passage that allows Indian Sikhs to visit the temple in Pakistan where Guru Nanak died in 1539, opened in 2019 to commemorate Guru Nanak’s 550th birth anniversary but was blocked last year due to the epidemic.

The Corridor will reopen on Wednesday, ahead of Nanak’s birth anniversary festivities on Friday, according to India’s Home Minister Amit Shah.

In a major decision, that will benefit large numbers of Sikh pilgrims, PM @Narendramodi govt has decided to re-open the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor from tomorrow, Nov 17.
This decision reflects the immense reverence of Modi govt towards Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji and our Sikh community.

— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) November 16, 2021

The nation is all set to celebrate the Prakash Utsav of Shri Guru Nanak Dev ji on 19th of November and I am sure that PM @NarendraModi govt’s decision to reopen the Kartarpur Sahib corridor will further boost the joy and happiness across the country.

— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) November 16, 2021

According to a Pakistani official, the Corridor was never blocked on the Pakistani side, and they were waiting for confirmation from Indian officials that pilgrims would be permitted to cross.

The white-domed temple at Kartarpur, a tiny village barely four kilometres (2.5 miles) within Pakistan, had been out of reach for Indian Sikhs for decades due to the two countries’ unfriendly ties.

When British authority in India ended in 1947, Kartarpur was created out of India, with the majority of the region’s Sikhs remaining on the other side of the border.

Following the religious bloodshed sparked by Partition, millions of Sikhs fled to India, leaving an estimated 20,000 Sikhs in Pakistan.

Guru Nanak, who was born in 1469 to a Hindu family in the modern-day Pakistani city of Lahore, is adored by both Sikhs and Hindus, who prepare langars (community feasts) to commemorate his birth anniversary.