Navjot Singh Sidhu arrives in Lahore for Kartarpur ceremony

Indian cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday to attend the groundbreaking ceremony of Kartarpur border corridor.

Sidhu crossed the international border at Wagah and was received by Pakistani authorities.

The corridor will ease travel for Indian pilgrims visiting one of the holiest sites of the Sikh faith in Pakistan. Gurdwara Darbar Sahib – located in the Kartarpur area of Narowal district of Punjab – is the final resting place of the founder of Sikhism Guru Nanak Devji, and one of the holiest shrines of the Sikh community.

Prime Minister Imran Khan will perform the groundbreaking on November 28. The move to open the corridor, analysts say, might thaw the frosty relationship between the two neighbours.

Earlier, India’s vice president laid the foundation stone of the Kartarpur corridor on the Indian side. Islamabad had hailed the announcement by India to open the corridor as ‘victory for peace’.

The Indian move came nearly three months after Pakistan’s army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa had offered to open the route to facilitate Sikh pilgrims. The COAS told Sidhu at the inauguration of Prime Minister Imran on August 18 that Pakistan was ready to open the route to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur for Guru Nanak’s 550th birth anniversary.