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Indian Sikh Pilgrims Visiting Kartarpur Won’t Need Passport, Says Pakistan

Indian Sikhs won’t be charged a fee on the opening day of the Kartarpur Corridor and on Guru Nanak Jayanti, Pakistan PM tweets.

Imran Khan, Pakistan’s prime minister, speaks during the UN General Assembly meeting in New York, U.S. (Photographer: Yana Paskova/Bloomberg)
Imran Khan, Pakistan’s prime minister, speaks during the UN General Assembly meeting in New York, U.S. (Photographer: Yana Paskova/Bloomberg)

Sikh pilgrims from India would only need a valid proof of identity and not a passport to travel to Kartarpur, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said Friday, adding that no fee would be charged from them on the opening day of the Kartarpur Corridor and on Guru Nanak Jayanti.

In a tweet Friday morning, Khan said the condition for pilgrims to register 10 days before their arrival to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, the shrine of the Sikh religion's founder Guru Nanak Dev in Kartarpur, has been waived off.

The Kartarpur Corridor will connect the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Punjab with Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur, just 4 kilometres from the International Border, located in the Narowal district of Pakistan's Punjab province

Notwithstanding a chill in bilateral ties over Kashmir, Pakistan and India after tough negotiations last week signed an agreement, paving the way for the inauguration of the Kartarpur Corridor on Nov. 9, ahead of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, on Nov.12.

The agreement will allow 5,000 Indian pilgrims daily to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib where Guru Nanak spent last 18 years of his life. Each visitor would be required to pay $20 as fee, though India has requested Pakistan not to charge the Indian pilgrims.