NEW DELHI:
Actor-politician Sunny Deol will be part of the inaugural procession visiting Pakistan to attend the opening of the Kartarpur corridor, said the Punjab Chief Minister’s office. “If I won’t go, who will? I’ll definitely go. It is my area and my home,” the BJP MP from Gurdaspur was quoted as saying
Sunny Deol, who was the BJP’s star candidate in Punjab during the national election, had prayed at the Gurdaspur Gurdwara before starting his poll campaign.
Weeks after his election, Mr Deol had posted photos on social media reviewing the work progress of the corridor which connects the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in his constituency Gurdaspur to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib across the border.
Apart from Mr Deol, the first group of Sikh pilgrims includes former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Union Ministers Hardeep Puri and Harsimrat Kaur Badal. Congress MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu was also given political clearance to visit the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib by the foreign ministry on Thursday.
India had sent a list of the 550-member jatha or delegation attending the November 9 event in Kartarpur, and presumes it stands confirmed by Pakistan, the ministry said.
Gurdwara Kartarpur, located on the banks of the river Ravi, holds great religious significance for Sikhs since Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism, had spent more than 18 years there.
Inaugural events for the Kartarpur Corridor will be held on both sides of the border on Saturday. While the corridor will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Indian side, his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan will declare it open at the other end.
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